Sleeptale
by Dragonlance416
Summary: When Maximus Underfell awakens from a dream involving a certain skeleton, she and her friends discover that monsters have begun to bond with humans due to intermingling dreams
1. Chapter 1- Where it all starts

Opening my eyes to the dreary and dismal blank space around me, I stared into the abyss around me and sigh heavily.

"This place really needs a change..."

Looking over to the mirror nearby, I take note of the golden pajamas I was wearing, the soft red sheets on my bed, and other random tidbits that caught my interest. But as soon as they became interesting, I yawned and rolled back to stare at the blank ceiling above me. Everywhere I looked, it was the same boring place as it had been the day before and the day before that. And as usual, I was growing bored. Very...very fast.

Finally making up my mind, I clap my hands and as if on cue, the room changed to something completely different. Sitting in it for a bit, I frowned and clapped my hands again and again until I finally liked the new look of the room; the walls had changed to a relaxing purple with little stars flying around here and there. The new decor finally appeased my tired mind and with a small smile on my lips, I got comfy and closed my eyes to enjoy the peace and quiet.

As soon as I fell asleep however, my eyes shot open as I felt an eerie feeling run through my brain; the same feeling that crosses your senses when you know there is danger close by or when someone is watching you from an unknown corner. Sitting up quickly, I felt my eyes widen at what they beheld: another me was standing near the end of my bed, but this one was wearing a purple shirt and had long, raven black hair and pale white skin. On top of its head were a pair of demonic horns that matched the equally demonically sharp smile it was giving me.

Time seemed to stand still as the two of us stared each other down, shock and surprise inhibiting me from acting quickly to get rid of this obvious threat. However, I was noticing that the room had begun to turn a dark red...as if the walls themselves were bleeding. Seeing the walls changing, even more panic started to seep into my being. So much so, that I barely noticed the demon version of me materialize a long knife out of its chest and leap at me with the blade pointing at my own torso.

Willing my body to move, I rolled off the bed and scooted myself back a few steps upon seeing the knife go cleanly through my mattress and red sheets. It's head quickly whipped to me and it slowly unsheathed its weapon from the mattress and stood up, eying me like a predator. Its steps were slow, and each one seemed to create a small puddle of red on my floor.

Each stalking advance that it took forward, I made one step backwards. Each step felt like its own inevitable end, as with each one, I felt a crawling on my back that shook my very core. After seven steps however, I realized that I had backed myself stupidly into a corner with no way out. The demon seemed to notice as well, the smile turning even more cruel as it readied the knife again.

My heartbeat was loud in my ears as the full terror of the situation took over and without thinking, I closed my eyes and held my hands up to try and at least stop the demon from immediately ending my existence. Hearing the demon take one last step forward, I began to feel strangely calm in the face of certain death; my body seeming to unwind itself and my heartbeat slowing down to almost a normal heart rate.

Just as it seemed like the end was actually going to transpire...something happened. A split second before the demon went to slice my chest open, two giant skeleton bones seemed to appear from out of thin air and block the attack head on. The sudden interruption and appearance of the bones seemed to surprise the demon as much myself, as both of us ended up blinking for a full few seconds before it jumped back and readied its knife again.

 _"You really want to try that again, buddy?"_ My voice cut through the dreaded silence, a bored expression seeming to overtake my once terrified one. _"Cause I don't think you wanna have a bad time..."_

The second that phrase escaped my lips, my eyes widened slightly as I seemed to return back to my normal, terrified self. What...had happened was beyond my own way of description; it felt like my body had been given a mind of its own and was taking over control of the situation; almost like a puppet being controlled by strings manipulated by some mysterious puppeteer. However, my voice had changed too, being replaced by a deep male one. Holding my head for a second, I realize something else had changed as well: my original golden pajamas had been transformed into a dark blue hoodie with a white shirt underneath, black shorts, and white house slippers that covered my feet.

Meanwhile, the demon had recovered from the strange occurrence earlier and shrieked at me as it ran towards my location. Swinging as quick as it could, the knife seemed to miss its mark as I sidestepped out of the way and jumped away from the corner so I had more space to maneuver.

 _"Seriously, that was a BONE-ified lame attack. I could see it from a mile away,"_ the voice returned as my face smiled widely at the same time I gave the attacker a teasing wink. Its eyes narrowed to slits and it shrieked again as it went to attack once more, however it missed again and again. Each time it tried to hit me, my body moved and weaved with a deftness and agility I had never known before. And when my heart beat, it seemed as if two hearts were beating together in their own patterns to make a one unified chorus of rhythms and beats. It is as if...I was not alone for this fight.

Finding an opening to my enemy, I raised a hand above my head and was pleased to see the floor erupt with large spiked bones that made a cage around my attacker. The being shrieked more and more as it tried to escape, its knife striking the bones like a feral animal. Staring at the other me, I slowly leaned forward to investigate it further. But suddenly I felt something jerk my body backwards as if I was being forced out.

* * *

"Maximus, wake up! It's time for school!"

I hear my mom's mumbled voice behind the closed door of my room, making me sit up in bed and stretch before rubbing the sleep out of my still closed eyes. The dream from last night had been erasing itself from my mind like most dreams usually did, but I still remembered a few small details like the weird clothes and the bones…

Noting that my head was till feeling a bit fuzzy, I didn't let that stop me as I finally touched my feet on the ground and walked to my dresser. Passing the mirror on the way over, I almost shrieked as I saw a short skeleton staring at me instead of my own reflection, its clothes resembling what I had been wearing last night.

"Wh-what is going on?! This is just too creepy..." I asked aloud to myself as I keep staring at it, pulling one of my eyes down a bit and blinking when the skeleton seemed to do the same. For what seemed like at least ten minutes, I tried making faces and doing odd poses, and yet each time it seemed to then be copied to an exact detail by the skeleton on the other thinking it was just the sleep still kicked into my brain, I decided to ignore it and go get dressed. As I started to take my shirt off though, I looked over at the mirror and was surprised to see it just staring at me. Unlike before, it didn't move or say anything when I tried to get its attention; the empty sockets giving me an unblinking and focused stare.

Paying it no more attention, I slip into an outfit that consisted of a red and black plaid, a golden tee-shirt, and normal blue jeans. Not even looking to the mirror, I made sure everything was ready before I started to head out. However, as I went out the door, I finally turned my attention to the mirror and was quite surprised to see that the skeleton had disappeared. Taking a few extra seconds to make sure it actually was gone, I finally shake my head and close the door behind me as I made my way downstairs.

"Good morning dear, I have your stuff ready; it's by the front door, so grab it whenever you want to head out. Don't forget to stay out of trouble and to also stay determined." My mom smiled as I gave her a hug and a kiss on the cheek, grabbing the lunch she had prepared for me as I let go from the hug.

"I will, don't worry!" I nod happily, grabbing my things by the door as I also go to get my shoes on. "Oh, that reminds me: Travis and Matt may come over after school if they have time to hang out and play games. Anyways, see you later, mom!"


	2. Chapter 2- With Firends

Chapter 2

"Hey Samus!" I heard a voice call out to me, making me smile as I see a white haired boy waving in front of the school gate. The individual's brown eyes seemed to gleam with a cheerful light as he pushed his glasses up more onto his face, the black pants and green shirt he was wearing giving him a good contrast of colors between the dismal looking ones of the students around us. The boy in question was Travis; my best friend since kindergarten.

Giving the white haired boy a high five, I then closed the gap with a hug. "Hey, best bud! You won't believe what I got to tell you today."

Travis cocked his head a little and seemed interested in what I had to say. "Oh yeah, and what might that be? You dreaming more crazy stuff again?"

"Well...yeah, but it's nothing like the others!" I quickly piped up, putting my hands on my hips. Since Travis was my best friend, we talked about pretty much everything together. And because of this, he had to have the unfortunate (or hilarious fortune, depending on the day) front row seat to my pestering and to the odd tales of when my brain decided I would actually dream for once.

"Is that because you dreamed about yours truly?" Travis teased, poking me in the stomach.

"Psh, you only wish it was!" I giggled, trying to refocus on my dream before I forgot about it entirely. "No..like I said, this one wasn't-"

As I was about to explain more, the familiar sound of the school bell echoed through the campus. My eyes widened and I heard Travis say 'Oh shit' in almost perfect unison with my own voice before we both began to sprint to our first class of the day. For now, it seemed that the dream would have to wait.

A whole class period later, the sound of the bell for break time sounded like a godsend. I had barely contained the eagerness and slight anxiety I was feeling to share what had happened the night before with my friends. If anything, their opinion on the topic would be worth more then anything at this point and put my mind at ease.

Finally getting to the usual hangout area we always met up at, Travis and I spotted Matt with his eyes focused on a handheld game he had been bringing to school recently. Today, the older boy was dressed in an orange shirt underneath a black hoodie jacket and dark gray jeans that were sported by a dark brown belt and black shoes. Hearing us walk up, the blonde paused the game and gave a small saluting wave as his hazel eyes met ours after we sat down.

"By the looks on your faces, first period was pretty boring, eh?"

"Isn't it always..?" Travis groaned as he flopped onto the table, pushing his glasses back into place as they tried to fall off.

"We were late...again..." I muttered sheepishly. "This time it was kind of my fault, though."

"You know you guys have to stop being so late. I know class sucks, but trust the upperclassman when he says that it only gets better near the end if you don't slack off too much." Matt sighed as he put his game away, crossing his arms on the table once he was done.

"Says the guy who slacks off every day and skips out on classes.." Travis mumbled, making Matt smirk in his direction.

"That's the beauty of it, bud. If you don't slack off too much, you can slack off all the time!"

I giggle from hearing Travis groan again and decided to try and change the subject before the two boys got into another fight. The fights themselves were never terrible, but they did cause a lot of commotion when the two got riled up. "So, you guys still coming over to my place after school or what?"

"You know me, I'm always up for game night!" Travis nodded with a grin, punching his fists together.

"We do have to finish that game we all started playing co-op on a few weeks ago," Matt recalled, putting a finger to his lips as he thought aloud. "But remember what your mom said..."

"Homework comes first, I know..." I grumbled, rolling my eyes as we all stood up to go to homeroom. During the walk, Matt had been telling us about how his first class went and how the teacher had assigned a pop quiz out of nowhere. He had passed, but not before answering two questions before turning it in after the time limit. Travis and I made a remark about how the teacher could have failed him if he was caught, but the blonde simply shrugged.

On the way inside the classroom, I suddenly felt myself stumble a bit and heard Travis snicker behind me as I shot a glare at him. The glare was soon replaced by amusement though, as Matt tripped Travis with his foot as the white haired boy walked in front of him. Stepping over him, Matt began humming his way to his desk and was soon joined by the rest of us as I sat in front of him while Travis sat next to me.

"You did that on purpose..." Travis growled as he checked his glasses to make sure they weren't broken.

"What are you talking about? I just helped you through the door, that's all." Matt smirked, his eyes closed as he leaned back in his chair until he cracked his back. Upon doing this though, he ended up face to face with another girl that sat behind him. Blushing slightly, he waved and sat back up to pretend like he was adjusting his jacket and gathering his stuff for class. His eyes narrowed though as he looked up at us after realizing he was being watched.

"Not a damn word..."

"I thought you were gonna talk more with her today, Mattato." Travis snickered while raising his hand once the teacher called on him.

The use of his nickname made the blond's eye twitch and hr cleared his throat, trying to not look fazed. "Eh, I'm not in the talking mood today. She gets a free pass."

"Come on, it isn't that hard to talk to people." I chimed in, giving Travis a high five once he heard me chime in. "Don't get cold feet on us now."

"That's not….sh-shut up..." Matt hissed, hunkering more to the desk as he crossed his arms on it and tried to hide his ever growing blush.

Unfortunately for him, Travis noticed and grinned evilly. "You know, Samus...if Matt doesn't talk to her, then maybe I will. Who knows, it might go swimmingly!" He waited to see if Matt had heard him before continuing. "I mean, I already have her number anyways, so its a good start!"

Matt sat up more and looked at Travis with a death glare. "You wanna have a bad time, pal...cause you will..."

The phrase Matt had uttered made a siren go off in my head, as if I had heard that from someone very recently. But at the moment, I couldn't put my finger on it. Mostly because of Matt and Travis bickering.

"Why are you getting so upset, Matt?" Travis blinked in fake surprise, a hand on his chest as if he had been offended. "I was just saying how I would go talk to her and maybe let her join the group. Or hang out with her after school. Or..."

"Listen you little white haired-"

"Matt? Is that you back there?" The teacher interrupted, eying our group with a raised eyebrow. Upon hearing the teacher, Matt raised his hand and grinned, his normal demeanor popping back into existence as if nothing from earlier had happened.

"Hey, Miss Englehorn! Yeah, I'm here today. Was asking my good friend Travis here what I missed last class. Feeling much better now, by the way. Thanks for asking!"

Everyone in the class chuckled to themselves as the teacher rolled her eyes and turned to the board to write some announcements on it and discuss them. Not paying attention, I turned to Matt and giggled again.

"Nice save, Matt."

The blonde crossed his arms and slumped his face into it, sighing heavily as he pretended to tune out the class like he usually did. What Travis said about him slacking off was sort of right; Matt was a good worker when he wanted to be, but he always came off as tired and uninterested when something uninterested him.

After a bit of silence, Travis coughed a little and looked over at me. "So um...what were you saying earlier about a dream you had, Samus?"

"You actually dreamed for once?" Matt asked from behind his crossed arms, sounding shocked while he yawned. "Wait...don't tell me: it has to do with those Japanese ninjas in those colorful spandex costumes fighting monsters with a giant robot?"

"Not this time, sorry." I chuckled, remembering a dream I had told them a few weeks ago. I was actually surprised Matt remembered that one...

"Was it about...soup?" Travis cocked his head.

"Why the hell would I be dreaming about soup of all things?" I looked over at Travis with a blank stare.

He took a few seconds to think about his answer. "...Because you were hungry?"

I face palmed in front of him, shaking my head. "Travis..."

"I had a reoccurring dream once," Matt interrupted, officially joining the conversation fully once again. He leaned back a tiny bit and moved his neck to the side while rotating his left shoulder, grunting when we all heard a pop.

Travis opened his mouth to say something and I elbowed him in the ribs. "Oh yeah? Of what?"

"Well, I would tell you about a Lion, a Witch, and a Wardrobe, but its NARNIA business."

There was a moment of silence as I felt my head hit the desk, Travis meanwhile looked completely flabbergasted as he scratched his chin in thought.

"Wait...but you just said that you would-," Suddenly, he realized what Matt had said and snorted a laugh. "Oh, I get it! Well played."

"Thank you! I have my moments," Matt grinned as he opened one eye. "But that one I got from a chap who was given a role where he was paid to sleep. Turned out to be his dream job."

Travis' face fell to a frown as he sighed, "You're pushing the envelope with that one, bud."

"You sure?" Matt grinned wider, accepting the challenge with a mischievous gleam in his eye.

"Guys!" I put a hand on both of their shoulders as I got them refocused on me. "I'm being serious here. This dream was...really creepy but kind of important. So can I please say it now?"

"Alright, what's it about?" Matt toned down the demeanor almost immediately and looked at me, his tone also getting serious.

For the rest of the period, I discussed with them what I remembered of what transpired the night before in my dreams and of the events of this morning before school. And like I thought, each one had a different view as to what it meant. Travis' idea was that it could have been something that I had seen on TV and had altered slightly in my dream based on subconscious stuff. Matt however was a tad different; he listened to my recount of what happened and he seemed to be very interested in the subject. Especially about the skeleton and I being one and the same during that fight I had with the other me. However even after all that, he told me not to worry because it seemed like a dream that became a nightmare as most dreams sometimes do.

By the time the end of class had come and we were walking outside, I didn't know what exactly to believe. The two of them couldn't have known how it felt...but maybe they were right. Either way, I pretended not to worry too much as we headed back to my house.


	3. Chapter 3- Reflections

**"Hey mom!" I called out as I burst though the front door with Travis and Matt in tow behind me. Upon hearing us, my mom had poked her head out of the kitchen and waved before going back in to finish a call. Once done, she walked back in with the phone still in her hand.**

 **"Welcome back Maximus, dear. You and your friends have good timing; I just decided to get pizza tonight and already made the call."**

 **"Hell yea!" Travis jumped with joy, fist bumping happily. He stopped however as he realized my mom was staring him down, his body shrinking a little like she was his own mother.**

 **"Travis, what have I told you about swearing?" my mom asked solemnly, not paying attention to Matt and I as we snickered in the background.**

 **"...Don't swear unless you are recording..." Travis sighed, "Sorry Miss Underfell."**

 **"Good; now, you three head upstairs so you can start on your homework." My mom turned to look at Matt and I, and we instantly stopped laughing. Though, Matt had a snicker on the edge of his lips and I almost burst out laughing in front of her. She seemed to stare more at Matt however, and she lifted a finger in a way where I couldn't tell if she was either scolding or lecturing him. "And remember...no gaming until you all finish!"**

 **Matt gave a small shrug as he smiled sheepishly, knowing full well that my mom knew that he had a portable game system with him somewhere. "Uh...right. Will do, Miss Underfell; gentleman's honor."**

 **"Call us when the pizza is ready!" I start heading up the stairs, waiting for the other two to follow so we can get started and finish early. Upon opening my door though, we all did a double take as the skeleton from this morning was back in my mirror!**

 **"Woah...you weren't kidding when you said a skeleton replaced your reflection..." Matt stared seriously at the mirror, his gaze never leaving the skeleton's eye sockets as if waiting for it to move.**

 **Travis and I looked at each other before I shrugged and went to get my homework set up. "Long as he doesn't do anything, there isn't much we can do. Just ignore him if you can."**

 **"You are strangely calm about all this..." Travis said nervously as he looked back at Matt and the skeleton having a stare down. "But hey, I guess dreams really do come true!"**

 **He yelped as my hand smacked him in the back of the head. "Hey Matt, leave it alone and lets get started. Sooner we finish, the sooner we can just relax and have fun."**

 **Matt took another minute before he left the mirror to join us. As he walked away though, I could have sworn that I saw the skeleton sigh with relief. But my focus returned to the study group as Travis accidentally nudged me while grabbing a pencil that he dropped. Matt meanwhile had opened up his backpack and grabbed the first book he could find that matched ours. Upon pulling it out though, the blonde groaned when he saw that it was the math book.**

 **"Ugh...honestly the skeleton was way more appealing than this junk."**

 **After a good fifteen minutes of mathematics, we decided to take a break before we moved on to our other homework. Matt had pulled out a soda he had left over from lunch the day before and was sipping on it slowly. "So...do you remember anything else about the dream you told us?"**

 **"No, not really..." I reply after some hesitation, looking in the mirror again to see that the skeleton had not moved since we had arrived and was till staring at us.**

 **"Let's just not think about that right now," Travis put his book off to the side and looked over at us with a smile. "We got more important things to worry about. Like beating that boss we have been stuck on!""He has a point, SoulBlade. Without all three of us going at it, this boss is impossible." I laugh, handing a controller to Matt before I get one for myself.**

 **"Sounds like a challenge worthy of my skills," Matt smirked as he sipped more of his drink before setting it down. "Long as heartlance2016 is ready to rock, I'm ready to roll."**

 **"Just waiting on dragonlance416," Travis replied, winking at me while getting comfy.**

 **The three of us fully prepared, I turn on the game and get ready for a long night-fest of pizza, gaming, and laughs.**


	4. Chapter 4- He talks?

By the time the afternoon had turned to the wee hours of night, Matt and I were the only ones left awake; my mom had went to bed early due to a headache, and Travis decided to try and catch a few winks of sleep since he had been up late the night before. Feeling tired myself, but not enough to actually sleep, I decided to turn the game system off and read a little while Matt reclined against the wall with his handheld game.

"That thing is still staring at me..."

I blinked, looking over at the blonde with confusion before I remembered what he was talking about. "You think it's even alive in there?"

"Oh it's alive all right," Matt went back to his game with a huff. "It thinks I don't notice it, but sometimes it moves a little bit to adjust. I think it's pretending or some shit like that. Though I got to say, standing all day must be unbearable."

Looking at the mirror again, I couldn't help but stare as I thought I saw the mouth of the skeleton move...as if it was smirking in some unique way. "Don't you have to go home around this time, Matt? It's getting really late."

"...I'll leave eventually. Just wanted to finish the pizza first." Matt grabbed a now semi-cold slice and began to eat as he used one hand to play the handheld game as best as he could. "You can go to sleep if you want; no use waiting on me to get tired just to see me out the door."

A yawn escaped my lips as I nodded. Now that he mentioned it, I was feeling really tired. "Okay...night..." I mumbled softly as I put the book down and closed my eyes.

Before I fully went to sleep, I saw Matt stare at the skeleton again and offer a slice to it. Not getting a response, he simply shrugged and began to eat it while getting back to his game.

* * *

My eyes stayed closed as I first entered the void, afraid of what may happen if I open them again. However, hearing nothing that sounded unfamiliar or strange, I took one tiny peek and felt my body relax. The void had returned as normal as ever; no bleeding walls, no knife wielding demons or skeleton bones appearing out of nowhere. Everything seemed normal to such an extent that I was getting the feeling like yesterday had been nothing more than just a typical nightmare.

However, that idea was blown sky high as I heard a familiar sound reach my ears. And soon after that, the skeleton from my mirror was seen rolling into my field of vision as if it had just dodged an attack of some kind. Getting up, its eye's widen as it fell backwards and crab walked to avoid the demon from last night as it tried to slash at him repeatedly. Apparently that had also returned, broken free of the cage like it figured it would.

Standing there, I didn't know exactly what to do. I mean sure, I had to help the one who assisted me last night...but how to do it was what was the dilemma. The problem got even worse though, as the demon finally realized I was here and seemed to teleport away from the skeleton's counter-attack.

 _"_ _Hey! Where do you think you're-"_ The skeleton's deep voice rang out as it turned to where I was standing. Seeing me however, its face turned from annoyed to shocked as he stopped his attack and just stared at me, those tiny eyes in the middle of his sockets shrinking to show his emotion.

Not realizing why he stopped, I opened my mouth to say that I was on his side...but was stopped by the feeling of cold steel against my throat. The other me giggled in glee, its breath against my ear as it readied the blade to strike if the skeleton made a move.

"D-Damn it..." I croaked out, closing my eyes and wishing I was away from the demon and out of harm's way as I started to tear up. But no sooner had I thought about it, my entire body felt as if it was floating and separating into tiny pieces before re-merging together. Opening my eyes to the surprising feeling, I realized that I had also somehow learned how to teleport and ended up right next to the skeleton.

" _You got an idea on what this thing is, kid?_ " The skeleton asked, his hands now in his hoodie pockets and the tone of his voice going to a more neutral and calm tone. It felt so weird meeting the one who I had shared a voice and heartbeat with the night before…

"It's another me...I think," I responded, my eyes never leaving the demon out of my sight. As it started to play with its knife, my ears picked up a strange song in the background of all this chaos.

" _Big issue, then. Got it._ " My companion nodded, clearly showing that it was unsure on how to deal with the other me or what to say about it.

The demon appeared to finally get annoyed by us ignoring it, a shriek escaping its lips as it charged forward with the blade again. The skeleton reacted faster and pushed me out of the way, summoning two bones that crossed over each other to create a spinning shield.

" _Hey, just do what I do if you want to survive!_ " It says meekly as we both tried to dodge and block the oncoming attacks.

"The hell do you mean by that?!" I yelped as I ducked under a knife swing, terrified and unaware of anything going on around me except for dodging the never-ending assault. By now the two of us were moving at incredible speeds, dodging and counterattacking as best as we could as the demon form of myself kept charging forward and swinging its blade.

Noticing the skeleton looking more bored with each dodging movement, it finally seemed to have enough of the demon and grabbed my arm as we both terleported a good distance away. Raising one arm up, the skeleton seemed to grin evilly as something big morphed in front of us. Before I could get a good look however, a bright flash of blue light erupted all around me with such intensity that I was forced to close my eyes and wince from the pain.

* * *

Waking up with a start, I felt myself falling a yelp of surprise and panic escaped my lips before I hit the ground with an audible thud. Peeling myself off my floor, I rub the back of my head and look around in a slight dizzy state of confusion.

"Man, that was weird. It was just like last night...but like a sequel."

Finally feeling a bit more like normal, I stand up and walk over to the mirror to see if the skeleton had disappeared or not. Sure enough, just like yesterday, it was gone for now. And also similar to last night, the dream was slowly fading away to where only certain parts stuck out in my mind.

Shrugging after a bit of hesitation on what to do next, I decide the best thing to do would be to act normal and go about the day. Yawning again as I reach the middle of the stairs, I notice Travis messing with his glasses. Hearing me coming down, he put a finger to his lips and motioned over to the rocking chair. Surprisingly, Matt was still here, the hood pulled down over his face as he slept soundly with one arm hanging limply over the side while the other was draped over his stomach.

"Found him here like this, though his handheld was laying on the floor next to his hand before I moved it to the table. Must have dozed off without even knowing it." Travis yawned and sleepily re-adjusted his glasses. "Heard something upstairs...Something happen again?"

"Somewhat," I nodded, my hands holding my face as I started to fully wake up. My mind kept replaying images of what happened last night and it seemed to tire me out more than usual. It was a good thing it was a Saturday and we didn't have to worry about school. "Maybe now I can finally relax and figure all this out. Maybe even meet the skeleton formally..."

" _Name's Sans_."

My body tensed as I shot up quickly, making Travis jolt in his seat as the table moved and woke him up again. Noticing my rapid movements as I looked around, he got a bit worried and started looking with me.

"What's wrong? You see a mouse or something?"

"I...I'll be right back." I said calmly, letting my brain relax as I figured it was just another post-dream thing that may wear off. "I just remembered that there's...some parts of the video that we recorded last night that I need to edit. Lots of good content, ya know?"

Rolling his eyes and slumping back to the table, Travis groaned. "Yeah...you do that. Just don't give me another heart attack next time you remember something, okay?"

 _"Poor guy almost got scared to death,"_ I heard the voice say again, making me stop for a second on the stairs. I wasn't imagining it earlier; the voice was real and only I could apparently hear it! Or at least, for now it seemed that way.

" _But hey, you're right. You guys put a SKELETON of work into that recording last night. Better finished it or else you'll be BONED_."

I felt my eyes roll; the skeleton was as bad with puns as Matt was. Heaven help us all if they ever met…

"It was an hour long special, so a lot of work has to be put into the editing if you want to get good finished results." I responded to myself, not realizing that I said it aloud for all to hear. Luckily no one seemed to notice and I sighed with relief before I closed the door behind me once I got to my room.

Checking the time on the clock, I note that it was only eight-thirty in the morning and decide to sit down at my desk to start working. As usual for my routine, I grabbed some headphones and turned some tunes on to listen in the background as I began to edit at a pretty fast pace. However, as soon as I get into a good rhythm, I hear a knock on the door.

" _You can come in, Travis. It's not like she...I mean, I, went back to sleep or something,_ " Sans' voice spoke out through the mirror, his expression changing slightly as I glanced over at him. I made a confused face in his direction but soon turned my attention to the door as Travis walked in.

"How did you know it was me?" The white haired boy exclaimed in his cheerful tone before plopping himself next to my desk.

"Hm? What are you talking about?" I ask rather bluntly as I paused the music. Apparently people COULD hear the skeleton now...and I had to make sure it stayed a secret for as long as I could.

"Um...nothing?" Travis replied, looking confused at my tone before he looked over to my mirror for a bit. "I came up to tell you that your mom is up and making breakfast. Oh, and that Matt is up as well; the guy got up and immediately went tot he bathroom. Hasn't come out yet so I am assuming he may be washing his face to wake up or something."

Realizing that Travis was going to stay with me during the editing process, I unplugged the headphones and let the music be heard by everyone in the room. The song itself wasn't something Travis would normally listen to, but he didn't seem to mind as he helped me out with a few things for the video and tipped me about how to make things better next time.

"Oh hey, maybe you should put cans of soup in different places of the video!"

I stopped mid-edit on a part of dialog I was turning down to match the rest of the video, looking at him with another blank expression. "Why would I do that, Travis?"

"Because then it is like a 'Where's Waldo?' game, but with soup instead of people! It would be great!" Travis beamed at his brilliance, waiting for a response from me before saying anything else. But when I didn't say a word, he gave me the puppy-dog eyes. "Please, Samus...you know how much I love soup."

"Since when?!" I reply, not getting what he was talking about at all. But seeing the look on his face afterward made me facepalm and groan into my hand. "Oh god damn it, Travis...You were watching that meme again, weren't you?"

As soon as I had finished asking, Travis began to go through the meme word for word. As he neared the end of it, I quickly placed a hand on his mouth to muffle the last few parts. Trying to find a way to shut him up, I sigh with relief as Matt conveniently walked through the door and into the room.

" _Why does she even BROTHER with him, sometimes? And even this early in the morning._ "

Matt raised an eyebrow at the mirror, tilting his head at it. "No idea. Maybe they secretly like each other?"

Travis and I stopped our little struggle and stared at the skeleton in the mirror as it seemed to look at us with a wide smile on its face. We then looked at Matt, who had the same smug look as he sat down and grabbed a now cold slice of pizza to eat. I undid my hand from Travis' mouth, looking startled beyond words.

"Matt...did you just…?"

"Do what? I didn't say anything," The blonde began to munch on the pizza and pointed at Travis nonchalantly. "By the way, don't be so loud or else Maximus' mom is going to hear you swearing that last part. Then you may not even be allowed over for a few days."

A bright blush went over Travis and I as we looked between Matt calmly eating the cold pizza slice and a chuckling Sans. Wanting to get off the subject of the two of us, I cleared my throat and focus my attention on the skeleton for now.

"So...you apparently can talk to us now? Is this a new thing or did you have the ability to talk all the time but chose not to?"

Travis looked even more confused and intrigued than before, "Wait, that was the deep voice from earlier?" He adjusted his glasses as he thought deeply for a second, taking all this new information in. "Still doesn't explain how you knew it was me when I knocked, though."

" _Maybe Maximus and I just ADORE you so much that we knew it was you_!" Sans piped up, his smile seeming to become an impish grin as Travis closed his eyes and shuddered slightly, taking a deep breath.

Noticing Travis' reaction, Matt grinned and leaned over a bit towards the door as he motioned to it. "You think that's bad? At least you didn't HIT ON anyone with the door."

It took me a second to figure out what was going on, my own giggle entering the room as Travis looked at Matt with a death glare.

"Matt….I swear to God..."

The blonde snickered, trying so hard to not burst out laughing as he covered his mouth with his hand. Sans meanwhile was now looking towards Matt, winking as he chuckled with him. Somewhere deep down, I had a feeling that those two were going to be good friends very fast.

"Can we get back to the subject?" Travis yelled, his arms thrown up into the air. "We have a talking skeleton in a mirror throwing enough puns, Matt! We need to focus!"

At that moment, the door opened and my mom poked her head into the room. "Oh, I'm sorry, were all of you busy?"

"Uh…," I glance at the mirror with panic, but soon see that Sans was nowhere to be found. "...No, not really. We were just editing the video and going over some other stuff.

She nodded and moved some of her brown hair out of the way of her eyes, "I figured as much. But please take a break and come eat, breakfast is getting cold."

We all nodded in unison, Travis and I leaving quickly since we were closest to the door. We didn't even notice my mom as she almost fell over from how quickly we scooted past to head tot he table. Matt meanwhile actually saved our work since he knew I forgot and calmly kept his demeanor.

None of us told my mom about what we had been actually doing; talking to a skeleton in a mirror would have made her flip out and think we were crazy. And if she actually did see Sans, she would flip out and think she herself was off her rocker. The unified decision of letting this be a secret, we knew, was for the best of everyone...though, deep down, I did wish that I could introduce my mom to our new friend.


	5. Chapter 5- Going over Details

A few hours had passed since the breakfast table, the three of us now finding ourselves in the nearby park under the shade of a large tree. We hadn't said anything about recent events until we knew we were alone to talk without anyone listening in direct vicinity.

"Alright, let's go over everything that we know about the situation at hand. It's not much, but we got to start somewhere," Matt began our conversation, leaning against the tree with his arms crossed while Travis and I listened from our sitting positions.

"Starting with the dreams Maximus has been having: since they began, a skeleton has been popping up in mirrors close to her, sometimes even taking out her entire reflection. This same skeleton, Sans by name, can also apparently talk and interact with us."

He stroked his chin a bit in thought, narrowing his eyes as he looked down at the ground. "Now...I have a feeling that since we can hear him, it is entirely plausible that others outside of this circle can interact with him too."

Travis nodded, "That makes sense. It wouldn't matter if he could only be seen and heard by the three of us, because if that was the case, he would only need Samus' attention since she is the one having the dreams."

I nodded, staying silent for now since I really had no idea what to add or say in all of this. Everything was going so fast that it was making my head spin.

"Well, I don't know what else to really say, I think Sherlock over there summed it up pretty well!" Travis joked lightly, trying to keep my spirits up and to get a reaction out of Matt for what he and Sans were doing earlier.

However, Matt seemed to be lost in his own head at the moment, his eyes closed and the hand on his chin not moving at all. Travis tried again with the Sherlock Holmes crack, but nothing seemed to get a rise out of the blonde upperclassman.

"Wow...he is really into this, isn't he?" Travis looked over at me and I nodded. "Kind of weird seeing him actually use his brain once in a while like this."

I was about to say something in Matt's defense, when we suddenly heard him mumble something. Opening his eyes, Matt looked at us with a grim expression as his hands re-crossed.

"It could happen again..."

"...I'm not following you." Travis cocked his head, adjusting his glasses as they almost fell off.

"Think about it: Maximus has had dreams where something has mingled into it and is now a part of her life somehow. If Sans was just a part of a wacky dream, it would have stayed that way. However, he is a literal talking skeleton in a mirror who is intelligent enough to know how we work and everything. This wasn't just a random coincidence...its happening for a reason."

"Y-You sure…?" I asked shakily, the realization of what was happening dawning on me finally.

Matt nodded, "The same thing could happen to anyone. And it probably will happen….the only thing we don't know is how long it will be before everyone has a monster running around."

The air in our little circle was ominous, to say the least; not a single thought about it ever happening to anyone had ever crossed our minds, and yet now it was all spread out before us. Anyone...even my mother...could have a monster just appearing out of nowhere to place itself in that person's life whether they liked it or not. What Matt said was grim, and I could tell that even he was contemplating this whole thing as a possible bad omen.

"You didn't have to lay all the BONE-ified facts out like that...it's so heavy, it hurt my funny bone.."

A moment of silence fell over us, the dark and ominous air slowly floating away as the pun escaped my mouth. It had happened so fast that I had said it before I even knew what I was doing. Matt was looking at me with a raised eyebrow and Travis was….overreacting as usual with his shocked expression and his dropped jaw.

"You feeling alright? I thought puns were Matt's schtick?" He quickly placed a hand on my head and frowned, clearly trying to see if I was sick.

"Sans must have slipped it out at the last moment," I replied unsurely, whapping Travis' hand away so he would stop.

As the day continued, we talked about all the possible outcomes and consequences based around our new dilemma. After a certain point though, Travis' mom had called him suddenly. By the way his face had fallen, it was no surprise that Matt asked him what was going on.

"It's about a new dog," was all Travis answered with, looking very annoyed about the whole ordeal waiting for him at home as he rubbed his temples. Something about the way he mumbled it made the rest of us wonder if it really was a dog, or if it was some code his mom had about coming home right then and there.

Matt then decided to go home too, noting that his folks were probably worried about him not coming home at the usual time. He figured that his parents knew where he was and didn't bother to call and ask, but going home now would be the best idea before they actually did start to worry.

And so, with everything said and done, we all parted ways for the time being.


	6. Chapter 6- Enter! old and new friends?

Arriving home as soon as I could, I gave my mother a quick hello before darting up the stairs to hide in my room. Grabbing a pen and a notebook along the way, I closed the door behind me and scooted a chair towards the mirror. The skeleton seemed to have been sleeping since I was gone, as his eyes blinked quickly after I opened the door.

" _Back so soon_?" He yawned loudly and stretched a bit. " _You and your friends seemed to be having a good time. They may be a bit odd, but who am I to judge good character?_ "

"Yeah, Matt and Travis are something else..." I replied, now sitting in the chair and looking eagerly curious.

Sans opened one eye and looked somewhat confused as to the reason behind my excited nature, but that changed as he glanced at the pad and paper. " _What's with the pad, Nancy Drew_?"

This time, I was the one who blinked in surprise. "Oh these? I wanted to….well, to be honest, I want to learn more about you personally. Since, you know, we are now dealing with the same stuff and all."

" _You also want to ask a lot of questions, right? Well, just so you know, I won't be able to answer all of them since I know as little as to whats going on as you do._ " He sighed through his teeth.

"That's the name of the game," I answered bluntly, getting comfortable in my chair as I try to think of what to ask him. After some time though, I began to notice Sans getting uncomfortable and I clear my throat to say something.

"So….um...is Sans your actual name?"

Sans shrugged, his eyes narrowing a little as he looked puzzled by the question. " _That's the name I can remember...so yeah, I suppose so_."

"How are you able to be in my mirror like this?" I asked, the end part of my pen tapping on my chin. "And how can you disappear and re-appear whenever you want?"

The skeleton hesitated on that question, his eyes looking off to the side slightly. It was clear he didn't fully trust my my friends and I yet and was keeping his cards close to his chest.

" _Tibia honest..._ " he began, his eyes meeting mine again before continuing carefully, "... _You were pretty good back there. Terrified and unfocused, sure, but you got potential._ "

Hearing a ringing in my head, I began to wince as pieces of the first night's dream began falling back into place. It was still blurry, but it definitely was trying to claw its way out. As the ringing died down, I looked out the window to calm myself.

"Honestly, it's because when you came...I felt safe. And I am glad you did, because that experience was unlike anything I have ever had to go through; I mean, I rarely dream at all! So having a demon version of myself come out of nowhere and try to slice me up was..."

I sniffled a bit and rubbed a tear out of my eye, not wanting Sans to see it. Finally turning back to the skeleton, I saw that his demeanor had changed a bit and he was now standing there in a relaxed and open stance. His eyes had also gotten softer somehow, as if he wasn't worried about anything at all except for me in this state of distress.

"Well hey, DREAMERS can't be choosers, kid. As my brother Papyrus says, 'Don't be upsetti, have some spaghetti!'"

At the mere mention of his joke, I burst out laughing. Whether it was from how bad it was, or from how genuinely sincere the advice was, a smile was creeping back onto my face. It was also at this moment that for the first time since I had encountered him, Sans and I were alone and able to talk freely about anything. Now not worrying too much about the dreams of past nights, I focused on talking to my new friend and learning what I could about him. Sans also offered to share some personal stories and memories, throwing in an occasional pun once in a while as usual.

Somewhere near dinnertime, I heard yet another knock on my door and quickly gave Sans a shooing motion while placing the paper and pen down on the floor near me. Quickly making sure the skeleton was gone, I cleared my throat and hoped for the best.

"C-Come in!"

Once again, my mother opened the door and looked at me...although she was also surveying the room as well. "Maximus...is everything alright?"

"Yeah? Why wouldn't it be?" I asked with a jittery voice, my body tensed up from both the poker-face I was wearing and from the look my mom was giving me at the moment.

"I just heard you talking to someone and I was just making sure everything was….normal and everything. Why are you all jumpy?"

"Y-You just scared me is all, Mom." I laughed nervously and scratched the back of my head. "Those voices were from a call I was on with one of my classmates. He...missed yesterday due to being sick and just remembered to call me about the homework. Must have accidently had my speaker on, sorry!"

My mom blinked at my answer and nodded cheerfully. "Oh, well that explains it! Hope your classmate gets better soon. I'll come get you when dinner is ready, dear."

Once the door had fully closed, I felt myself slump into my chair with relief. Sans seemed to have a similar feeling as he reappeared in the mirror, sweat looking like it was beading on his bony brow. Both deciding to stop discussions about any sort for now, I instead set up a Skype call with Matt and Travis so we can finish working on the video we were editing. A few hours of editing and a stomach full of dinner later, I figured it was time to call it quits and head to bed. I was definitely worried about the other me, and what it might try to do on this night, but a reassuring glance from Sans before he waved me goodnight filled my heart with a bit of determination.

* * *

Once again finding myself in the void of dreams, I notice that Sans' clothes were back on my figure and the feeling of dread was starting to come back to haunt me. Sidestepping on instinct, I wobble a bit as I was still inexperienced with the newfound speed my companion possessed but soon found my footing and got ready for anything to swing at me.

But...after a few seconds of standing there like an idiot...I realize that there was nothing here. No Sans, no demon with a knife, or any creepy feeling; just me, the purple walls of my dreams, and the same twinkling stars that I had created that first night to liven up the place.

"Huh...well this is...certainly anti-climactic." I sigh heavily and sit down, strangely bored by the fact that something wasn't going to attack me for once. "Well, I may as well enjoy the peace and quiet while it lasts."

Closing my eyes and placing my hands behind my head, I lay back and smile softly. However, the sound of something moving fast above my head made my eyes open quickly, letting me just see the faint outline of an odd spear as it faded away after hitting one of my purple walls and ricocheting off like a pinball.

Sitting up, I turn my attention to a few more spears that were scattering in all directions and the sounds of a battle not too far away. Making my way over, I look a bit shocked as a demon I had never seen before was brawling it out with a lone figure donned in silver armor. The room room around the two looked like a hallway that a castle would hold, with banners and chandeliers all over the place.

" _Talk about a ball room blitz..._ " I hear myself say, noting that Sans and I were sharing the same voice again like on the first day.

From my vantage point near one end of the hallway, the knight seemed to be keeping up with the demon and attacked just as fiercely on the giving end. Blow after blow, the two attacked and paired and dodged so effortlessly, that I couldn't help but whistle in respect. But the dance of battle seemed to come to a standstill as the demon sucker-punched the knight in the gut before following it up with a backhand that sent the figure sprawling a little, the helmet bouncing off to the side as it came undone.

The identity of the knight made my blood run cold; there stood Matt, his blonde hair drenched with sweat and an eye patch over one eye as he growled at the demon while getting up and materializing a spear in his hands. Twirling it like a bo staff, he bared his teeth at the demon as it followed suit with its fists. At that moment, the current event at hand made what Matt said earlier click into place: monsters were latching to us through our dreams...and it seemed that the dreams were connecting once it happened.

" _Hey, Undyne! Watch were you throw those spears of yours! You might give someone a SPEARING headache!_ "

My voice seemed to snap Matt out of whatever trance he was in, for he turned to me and looked genuinely surprised to see me standing there watching the fight with my hands in my hoodie pockets with a semi-cocky smile.

" **Sans?! Is that you?** " A raspy female voice popped out of Matt's mouth as he spoke, quickly dodging a blow from the demon attacking him before he kicked it in the face and stepped back towards us with a spear ready.

" _Yeah, its me. But I've come with a little twist_ ," I nod, looking over the demon from head to toe. "L _ong lost brother_?"

" **Shut it, dork. Now's not the time** ," Matt readied his stance as the demon looked genuinely confused as to where I came from, so much so that it dropped its guard to inspect the interrupting newcomer.

" **Any idea on how to beat this thing? I've tried every trick in the book, but it seems to know all my moves**..." The blonde's one good eye looked over at me, a look of worry written in it as he still tried to keep a calm and intimidating presence. He wasn't terrified like I was, in fact I think he was enjoying himself while fighting the demon. But it was clear that he had enough and wanted the fight to end quickly.

My smirk turns into an evil grin and I raise a hand up, one of my eyes sparking a flame of blue and yellow. " _Yeah, I got an idea on how to handle this copycat fiasco._ "

From out of nowhere, the skeleton head that Sans had summoned that one time morphed in front of us and blasted that same attack at the demon in front of us. The creature was genuinely terrified as it saw the blue and white beam of intense light whirling towards it that it froze in terror before it was vaporized, a silent scream escaping it as the whole world then turned that familiar bright white that faded all sound and image.

* * *

The sound of a phone buzzing nearby made me wake up slowly. Realizing that it was now morning and the dreams had ended, I quickly roll out of bed to check up on who was calling me so early and noticed a familiar number on the other line.

"Matt?" I held the phone to my ear, noticing that Sans had appeared again and was looking at me curiously. "What's up? Everything okay?"

"Uh...Yeah, everything is fine. Nothing out of the ordinary here." His voice sounded like its usual tone, but there was a distinct air of panic to it.

"You sure? You sound spooked to me," I looked over at the skeleton, who shrugged.

"Well uh...I had a crazy dream and was wondering if I could talk to you about it?"

I was about to respond when a raspy female voice yelled over the phone.

" **Don't ignore me, human! Get back in here right now!** "

Sans and I blinked in unison as we stared at each other. The skeleton reacted first, looking extremely worried. " _Is that...Undyne on the other side?_ "

Matt sighed heavily and the sound of a door closing was heard, followed by the sound of footsteps. "That's what she calls herself, yeah. Says I trapped her in the mirror in the bathroom and wants to be let out. But I don't know how to do that so I-" Matt was cut off as he yelped in panic, followed by the sound of something falling over and hitting the ground hard.

" **There you are! Why do you keep running away? You think you got better things to do then to help the ex-captain of the Royal Guard?!** " Undyne growled.

"How do you keep appearing in the mirrors? I leave one room and then you just appear in the next!" Matt was freaking out a little, his tone getting shaky.

" **Well maybe if someone were to help me out of here, I wouldn't have to keep chasing you around!** "

"Stop yelling at me! I'm two feet in front of you!"

" **I swear to Asgore, if you don't stop gawking on the phone and start helping me...** " A banging was heard and Matt quickly grabbed the phone off the floor, judging from the noise.

"I'm...gona call you back..."

As the phone hung up, Sans and I stayed silent. The two of us weren't sure whether or not to laugh over how it sounded like Matt and Undyne were fighting like some married couple, or to be terrified about another monster popping up other than him.

" _Tell Matt to send us a pic. I want to see this_ "

Sans' comment made me nod and I texted what he asked to Matt with the utmost of haste. After a few minutes of waiting, my phone vibrated and I checked it quickly before showing Sans what the blonde had sent me. There in the mirror of Matt's bathroom was a very angry looking blue fish woman with yellow protruding teeth, an eye patch, red hair, and little ears that looked like fins. The woman was banging on the mirror and was brandishing one spear in her hand.

At the sight of the picture, Sans seemed to grin and a dark chuckle escaped his lips. " _Heh...Called it.._ "


	7. Chapter 7- Talking it out

After a few minutes to dwell over what Sans and I had heard, the two of us agreed that it would be best to assist Matt before things got out of hand. Quickly getting dressed and grabbing my backpack, I was ready to fling the door open and head to his place.

"Maximus? Where are you off to in such a hurry?"

I froze; my mom had been silent all morning to the point where I thought she wasn't even home! Turning to face her, I try to think of a lie that still was somewhat true when I felt my backpack slip a little onto my other shoulder.

"M-Matt needed some help with a bit of the homework he forgot to do...so I figured that I would swing by and help him with it!"

"Oh? That is a bit surprising...usually it's the other way around," my mom thought for a second before she shrugged, smiling as usual. "Be sure to not stay over too long. If you need anything, just call."

Nodding, I waved goodbye to her before I hurried outside to take a deep breath and get my bearings. Once I figured that I was calmed down enough though, I took off like a bullet to assist my friend. Luckily, Matt only lived two blocks away and it didn't take me long to arrive on his doorstep.

My hand knocked on the door for a second or so, trying to calm my panting breaths as I was out of breath by this point. Hopefully, Matt would answer the door himself so I wouldn't have to worry about his parents awkwardly asking me why I was out of breath...or why a fish woman was in their bathroom mirror talking to their son.

As the door opened, I was surprised to see Matt's father open the door and raise an eyebrow at me. "What's wrong, Maximus? You look like you just ran a marathon."

"Sorry I'm here so early in the morning, Mister Silverding. Matt called me and wanted to talk about something; I think it has to do with a...project we have at school." I explained as quick as I could, sweat rolling down my face as I silently hoped he would let me in soon. "I was out on a jog and figured I could swing by and talk with him before heading home."

"Oh, you are jogging too? Maybe you can help Matt get into that or some other form of fitness training." Mr. Silverding looked back at the direction to his son's room before he lowered his voice, as if making sure Matt wasn't listening. "To be honest...I'm getting a bit worried about him. Matt's been acting a bit off the last few days and I think he needs some time out of the house..." the man grumbled, waiting for me to nod in reply before he stood back up and opened the door more for me to come in. "Anyways, try to keep it down since its still really early in the morning. Let me get you some water for the two of you before you head in there."

I was a little surprised that his father had not asked about my school stuff being with me after my supposed jog around, but I didn't think much of anything when he handed me the two tall glasses of ice cold water. Taking the water gratefully, I tried to act normal as I was walking down the hall to Matt's room, accidently gulping both cups before I even reached it. Knocking on his door before entering, I peeked inside to see that the blonde was nowhere to be found.

The sound of voices coming from the bathroom next to his room caught my attention and I focused on listening to them for a moment to make sure it was who I thought it was before heading in without knocking.

Both Matt and Undyne seemed to freeze for a second before the two shared a look of relief mixed with annoyance.

"You ever hear of a thing called knocking?!" Matt hissed as he shut the door quietly. "What are you doing here?"

"I came to help you out! Is that a bad thing all of a sudden?" I frowned, placing the cups on the counter so they wouldn't fall.

"Yes, as a matter of fact, it is. Especially when you are in the bathroom with me! What if someone walked by and heard us?"

" **They'll think you weirdo's are doing stuff you aren't supposed to,** " Undyne snorted, her arms crossed as she looked between the two of us. "S **peaking of which, you must be that girl on the phone with Blondie, right? I'm Undyne...and no worries, the pleasure is all yours.** "

I was about to reply when I saw Matt hold up a hand, "Don't mind her. Miss crabbypants is still miffed about how she is stuck in a mirror. And no amount of explaining can have her believe that I don't know anything about what's going on."

" _You seemed pretty BONE of yourself yesterday at the park, or so Maximus says_ ," Sans said from out of the blue as he walked into the frame of the mirror a bit behind Undyne, who quickly turned around to face the short skeleton.

" **S-Sans?! You are stuck in this too?** " She sounded both happy yet also confused to see the familiar face.

" _Yup, seems like a real predicament we got here._ " Sans nodded, looking over at Matt as he leaned to the left a bit. " _Quite a nice mirror you got here, buddy. A lot roomier than Samus' room._ "

Blinking at his comment on how the mirrors felt different, I went over to where Matt was leaning on the wall. "How are you holding up, Matt?"

Matt ran a hand through his hair as he sighed, trying to calm down. "I...I have gotten over the shock, at least. Although Undyne really needs to be a bit more supportive in all this instead of banging on the mirror all the time."

The fish woman was about to say something, but was cut off as I patted him on the back. I had to admit...seeing Matt in a mood like this wasn't something I was used to; his usual cool-headed and calm attitude was now reversed. "I got your back, bro. Just take it easy and remember to stay calm."

"Y _eah, just think of Captain Undyne here as your BONE-ified companion monster. Like that one show you told me about with the monsters being friends with humans in some digital world where they fight and bond and evolve..._ " Sans chuckled, winking at him.

" **C-Companion?! Who says?** " Undyne growled, her voice raising as she glared over at Sans. " **You honestly expect that I am supposed to be okay with being some sort of...side-kick to a human? It should be the other way around!** "

" _Undyne, chill..._ " Sans looked up at her now, his shoulders shrugging a bit as he walked up closer to join the group. " _It's not like any of us have a choice in this. Personally, Maximus and I have no idea what is going on yet, but Matt over there thinks that humans and monsters are somehow becoming attached through dreams. And when one monster and human share the same dream, they bond and become one...I think_?" Sans looked at Matt and I with an expression that read that he barely even knew what he was talking about.

" **Ugh...I wish Alphys was here to explain...** " Undyne groaned, holding her head as she tried to take it all in. " **So what you are saying is: Blondie and I somehow shared the same dream. And that created a bond between the two of us and that is why we are able to talk and see each other?** "

"That's the idea," I speak up, somewhat amused by how Undyne was acting at the moment.

" **But that doesn't explain why I'm stuck in a mirror!** " she yelled, throwing her arms up. " **Why are Sans and I stuck while you guys are out there and can do whatever you want?** "

"Look, if we had an answer for that, then I would tell you," Matt groaned, closing his eyes. "Just...Please just relax and keep your voice down or else my parents are going to hear you. And then I have to explain everything to them, and I don't think they will take it very well."

Undyne stood there with her fists clenched tightly and her teeth grinding on each other, silently staring at Matt before she huffed loudly and kicked the mirror. " ** _This sucks_** **!** "

Sans seemed to look between Matt and Undyne for a second before he shrugged. He seemed to be as deep in thought about all this as I was, especially from how this was happening so fast.

"Undyne..."

Hearing Matt's voice seemed to make the both of us blink out of our thoughts, not realizing the long silence that had transpired between the group. Looking over at him, the blonde seemed to still have his eyes closed and yet he was looking up at the ceiling.

"Undyne…?"

The fish woman was now glaring at him with her arms crossed, pouting a little. " **What do you want, human?** "

"Look, I know you and Sans don't like it in there; if roles were reversed, I'm sure I wouldn't either. But I promise that we are going to find a way for you both to be able to walk around freely and to do whatever you want. You have my word."

I noticed Sans look at Undyne, waiting for her to reply as much as I was. We had no idea how she was going to take all this information on the way over, yet we had a good idea that she was hiding how angry she really was.

" **You promise, huh…?** " Undyne said with a surprising amount of gentleness, her gaze softening as she seemed more sincere and trusting than her actions earlier. However, even she seemed to realize that her usual demeanor had dropped, for it was soon replaced with a glaring look of defiance as if that side of her never popped up. " **You better keep that promise; no one swears something like that to me when they don't have the beef to back it up. And don't even think about breaking it, or I swear that you will regret ever crossing me!** "

* * *

After the nearly chaotic meeting with Undyne had calmed down to an extent, Matt and I had decided to let the two monsters hang out for a bit as we went back to his room. It was clear that the blonde was relieved to finally be away from Undyne for a bit as his body flopped onto his couch the second we closed the door, almost giving the impression that he had fallen asleep when his head hit the pillow. Knowing he probably had a lot on his mind, I decided to change the subject.

"The only other time I can remember seeing you so disgruntled was that one night you had to edit everyone's research paper for the group project and that one lazy ass decided to send you one at four in the morning." I sat myself down on the floor and rubbed my temples.

"She knew I was just about to head to bed..." Matt grumbled from where he was laying, as if just thinking about that one incident made him hurt all over "Why did I invite her to our group for the project..?"

"Because you liked her at the time," I shrugged. "But after all that happened, you stopped talking to her."

"Wouldn't you? She literally sent me a paper that I had to write out for her cause it was so bad! And she sent it at the butt crack of dawn when I had just told everyone that I was going to bed!"

"I thought it was because she had a snarky attitude about our project getting a barely passable grade and blamed it all on you?"

Matt was silent for a few seconds as he rolled over onto his back to stare at the ceiling. "It was all of those things, honestly. And I am still ecstatic that she went to a different school after that term cause she was moving. Ungrateful little-"

I cut him off before he could finish, "Why do you go for girls like that?"

The blonde looked up and blinked, "Like what?"

Rolling my eyes, I took out my phone to check something. "I'm gonna text Travis and see what he is up to."

"Wait...no, what did you mean by that?" Matt looked confused, as if he had no idea what I was talking about.

I placed the phone down after texting Travis and looked up at Matt. "Dude...as your friend, I'm worried about your personal taste in girls; you always go for the ones that are clearly not compatible with you. Why don't you ever try to ask out a nice, sweet girl sometime? Like that one who sits behind you during homeroom you always talk to?"

Matt was silent as he stared at me for a second. I could tell the wheels in his head were turning, but nothing seemed to come out. Finally he sighed heavily and went back to laying down and closing his eyes, his voice having a similar growl to it like Undyne.

"What I do is none of your business. Now let's get packed up and head to school, I'm sure Travis is freaking out about why we haven't shown up yet."

The sudden realization that today was a school day seemed to make a lightbulb go off in my head that totally ignored what Matt's tone and what he had said beforehand. Quickly gathering our stuff, we swung by the bathroom to say goodbye to Undyne and Sans before leaving.


	8. Chapter 8- Chilling with monsters

Walking to school had been awkward, to say the least. What I had brought up with Matt apparently was still on his mind as his silence made me wonder if opening my mouth earlier about the topic was a good idea. I had never asked him about personal stuff like this as he liked to not dwell on it too much...but I had always been curious to why it left a bad taste in his mouth when he talked about girls in that way. And as his friend, I couldn't help but be both worried underneath all of my curiosity.

The rest of the school day didn't really help either: every period seemed to rush by quickly and before I knew it, the day had ended. Travis had offered to hang out at the park and was going to ask Matt why he wasn't feeling so good, but seeing the look I gave him, he just wished our friend a good day before we parted ways. I told Travis about what happened afterwards and he seemed to agree that Matt needed a long nap to at least get his energy back up.

We were sitting under the tree when Travis brought up the monsters bonding with humans topic again. He was wondering what sort of monster he might be paired up with and was curious as to how meeting it would go. It was...actually refreshing to see someone who was excited about this whole thing, as so far Matt and I were more paranoid and worried about the future to even think of anything else. However, while my white haired friend went on about how strong the monster may be, or what kind of appearance it may have, I couldn't help but chime in the healthy dose of caution that Travis needed to keep himself level-headed.

Finally deciding to call it a day, I trudged back home and was almost thinking of following Matt's example on taking a long nap before I started my homework. After everything that had happened, it seemed that the true fatigue of all those events were starting to take their toll. But I knew I couldn't; if I fell asleep now, who knows if Sans would be around to assist in case another crazy dream started happening.

* * *

Thinking of the skeleton in question, I raised my head to ask him something when I realized something was amiss: Sans wasn't in the mirror like he usually was. Needless to say, I started freaking out and was checking every inch of the mirror that I could. Trying to keep myself level headed, I did the first thing that I could think of and grabbed my phone to dial a number.

After a few rings, Matt answered the phone. "...Hello?"

"Matt! Sorry top wake you up, but I got a problem!" I answered quickly, still staring at the mirror as I prayed for Sans to just waltz back in like how he did at Matt's house.

"Is this about the History homework…? Cause if so, you got to wait until I'm actually awake to have the brain capacity for that crap." His voice sounded groggier with each second, as if he was about to fall back asleep.

My panic, however, seemed to ignore that completely. "N-No, it's not about that! Listen, Sans is missing; I left this morning and he was there in my mirror. But when I came home, he was gone!"

"...That's because he was over here for a bit visiting Undyne..."

I blinked. "Wait...What?"

 **"It's like what Matt said!"** Undyne's voice popped up on the other side of the line; apparently I had been on speaker the whole time. **"Sans was here a little while back when you guys were at school. Guess he got bored again, as usual."**

" _Awe, did someone miss little ol' me?_ "

The sound of Sans' voice made me jump a bit from my spot in front of the mirror as the skeleton in question sauntered back into my mirror, a look of smug amusement on his face.

"Everything okay?" Matt's voice called back over the phone, making me focus on it instead of the mirror.

"Yeah...Sans came back, talk to you later." I hung up and placed my phone down, glaring at the skeleton with a blush of embarrassment on my face.

" _Seems I poked a nerve, there. Did I scare you to the BONE_?" If the skeleton had a normal face, he would have been grinning from ear to ear at that moment.

"I swear to God, if you scare me like that again..." I mumbled to myself, going to sit on my bed to try to ignore him.

 _"No use trying to shut me out. Remember, we are basically the same being now. Whatever you are thinking, I'll know about it._ " Sans' grin seemed to widen as he chuckled to himself.

"Whatever; you are so getting a slap later..." I replied bluntly, closing my eyes with a huff.

 _"I have low HP, buddy. Probably not a good idea,"_ Sans winked teasingly at my attempt to ignore him as I rolled over.

"You mean like Hit Points in a videogame?" I yawned.

" _Don't think about it too hard, kid. You'll see tonight anyways_..." Sans' tone lowered, as if trying to drop the subject. " _You better get some sleep, you look bushed_."

Simply shrugging, I rubbed my eyes and tried to stay awake...however, fatigue and exhaustion took over and I slowly fell asleep before dinnertime.

* * *

Waking up in the Dreamscape once again, I could say without a doubt that I was surprised by the overall look of what I believed was my own room. Instead of my usual comforting, calm location, the entire room was filled with shelves of figures, videogames, books, movies, and so many other wondrous things that I felt like my head was going to explode. The place looked more like a museum of all things geeky and nerdy than a common room, and I couldn't help but whistle from taking it all in.

"What is this place…?" I heard myself mumble as I traversed the many hallways and side passages to gaze at everything. As I rounded a passage that lead to a few wax figures of some superheroes, I blinked in surprise as I saw Sans in the reflection of the glass case behind me. The skeleton was leaning on one of the exhibits, looking bored.

" _Why couldn't they have had an exhibit on ketchup..? I'm starving..._ "

"Maybe they do. Come on, let's explore a bit more!" Grabbing his arm, I began to pull him in a random direction, hoping it lead somewhere.

" _Honestly...I prefer your empty space a whole lot better. It's not too loud and I can actually catch a few winks of sleep._ "

I was about to respond with a witty comeback I had been planning for a few days, when I suddenly bumped into something. Rubbing my forehead and nose, I got a good look at what it was and frowned.

"A dead end? This can't be right..."

" _Oh well, we tried. Can we leave now_?" Sans asked hopefully, looking up at the wall as well.

Taking a step back, I observed the wall a little and narrowed my eyes as my brain racked for an answer. "Wait...Wait I know this. Matt mentioned that Undyne likes to make a few puzzles from time to time. Maybe there is a secret entrance hidden in the wall."

As I began to feel around the wall and knock on it, I heard Sans sigh heavily and join in soon after to help me look. " _Ugh...I bet she got the idea from my brother. Only he would think of a junior jumble like this_ "

Suddenly, Sans yelped as his hand sunk into the wall. The surprise and quick pull of the door made the skeleton soon disappear behind it, making me chuckle a bit in amusement as the tables had turned.

"You okay, Sans?"

" _Yeah...Peachy. I found 'em, by the way._ "

I heard the skeleton's muffled voice from behind the wall as I soon followed suit, blinking in surprise as we now stood in what looked like a weapon's room. From the floor to the ceiling, all kinds of weapons that even I had never heard about were hung up and strewn all over the place in what looked like a chamber straight from medieval Europe. None of us touched anything however, fearing that something would happen if we did.

Eventually, we found a door out of the armory and were assaulted by the sounds of a loud television and the raised voices of both Undyne and Matt as they sat in what looked like Matt's room in real life.

 **"** **Yeah! Sock it to that alien freak, monkey man!"** Undyne cheered, swinging a fist into the air as she bounced a bit in her seat. " **That'll teach that smug, arrogant jerk that wimpy losers can kick all sorts of ass**!"

It was….odd seeing Undyne acting like a little kid while watching the show on the television. Sans however seemed to be unfazed by it and simply chuckled as he motioned to the two of them.

" _They seem to be getting chummy real fast, huh?_ "

Hearing Sans' voice, Matt paused the show and turned a bit, not noticing Undyne gawking at the now blank screen. " **Why did you turn it off? It was just getting good!** "

Watching him motion with his thumb, Undyne turned around and beamed when she saw us, leaping out of the sofa to give Sans and I a big bear hug. " **There you are! What took you so long to get here? You won't believe the kind of anime Matt has been showing me!** "

"Yeah...that's great...Can you put us down?" I choked out, gasping for air when Undyne let us go.

"She got bored waiting in the armory after we trained for a bit, so we got to talking. Turns out, she is a huge anime fan!" Matt grinned, looking proud of himself for showing Undyne god knows how many anime episodes before we arrived.

 **"** **When we find Alphys, we GOT to bring her here! She is the reason why I even got into it in the first place!"**

 **"** Monkey man?" I pause trying to think about the anime she's thinking about and Matt looks at me with a smirk and replies

"it's your favorite." he simply replies as my eyes widen

"No way! you did a DBZ marathon without me?!" I almost nearly shout at him making my right eye turn blue and sparkle yellow for a second

 _"hey watch it, you don't want to be FLAMED or anything"_ sans replies sighing placing a hand over my mouth trying to stop the rant before it even happens

"what do you mean by that?" I ask mumbled and mostly confused

 _"eh its nothing."_ he replies removing his hand as Matt chuckles

"don't worry I only showed her the sayan saga she has no idea what happens next."

 **"aw man! but this anime kicks ass!"** Undyne cheers apparently liking the show as well giving the air two fast punches like in the show

I feel myself fall down onto a bed and I sigh with relief kind of tired form today's events "At least we don't have to fight some random demon version of ourselves tonight." I hear that slip out of my mouth, originally supposed to be a thought sans just stares at me interested by the thought

"yeah what's up with that anyways?" Matt asked interested in the topic

 _"maybe its the way that humans and monsters become one, fighting against the dark side of the human and once deleting that the monster becomes the other side."_ sans hypothesized as he joins me on the bed laying on the other side

"but who would create this place and why?" I ask looking at sans who seems to know what is going on at this point

 **"eh I don't know, but when I do find out I'm going to smash it for ever putting me in a mirror!"** Undyne states while putting her fists together ready for battle

And with that the rest of the night was calm and restful as Matt and I chilled with our monster counter parts but little as we knew the next night would be crazy as hell...


	9. Chapter 9- Spaghetti Glitches

A few days had passed since Undyne joined the group, and everything seemed to go back to normal...well, normal enough with monsters living with you as your shadow most of the time. There were no new sightings of monsters bonding with humans that we were aware of, though the group agreed that perhaps it was going on to people we didn't know. This made things a bit worrisome, however; if a new monster had appeared, we would have no idea if it was one of Sans and Undyne's friends or not. And it was this idea that worried us the most above everything else due to the creeping dread of the future that usually came with it.

On top of all this, Travis was getting more and more annoyed with the idea that a monster had not merged with soul like the rest of us. He kept going on and on about how unfair it was that we had such cool companions and was considering delving into some sort of witchcraft or other means to make a monster appear. A part of me wanted to just ignore him, but I could understand where he was coming from; it sucked being the last to be a part of anything.

That was what made me to decide on talking to him later than usual one day. For a few hours, Travis and I kept texting each other about random stuff and generally having a decent non-monster discussion. Eventually though, I felt myself close to dozing off and decided to say goodnight and log off. And after also saying goodnight to Sans, I felt my mind drift off to the usual DreamScape.

* * *

Opening my eyes soon after feeling the fall, I let out an audible yawn and scratched my head. It took a few seconds for me to realize it, but I soon noticed that Sans was nowhere to be found; neither fused with my soul or by himself out in the open, the skeleton seemed to be missing.

"Damn it, Sans...Did you really have to go visit Undyne and Matt right now?"

Sighing heavily, I decide to start figuring out what to do for the night and clapped my hands to make my room appear. Not seeing results, I clapped a few more times and frowned when the abyss stayed its pitch black.

"Are you friggen kidding me right now..?" I mumbled, stomping on the ground to see if that would do anything. Of course, nothing changed. "Sans! You better not have changed anything!"

Suddenly, a distant light seemed to materialize nearby my location as if in response to what I had said. Thinking the skeleton in question was up to his old tricks, I started walking towards it. Stopping a bit away from it, I extend my hand to touch it and look mildly surprised when it moved off to one side as if to avoid contact.

"Very funny, Sans..." I grumbled as I tried again, this time trying to go a bit quicker. Once my fingertip seemed to brush past the light, another light popped up. And that one was followed by more of the small wisp-like orbs as they began to fly around the blank space. The atmosphere of the void started to grow steadily into dread, as the wisps reminded me of some sort of spectral meeting ground.

Opening my mouth to speak, I felt my throat tighten and my hands grabbed at it as I struggled to breathe. My vision went blurry and my entire being felt as if it were a machine that was slowly losing batteries. Not knowing what else to do, and slowly losing consciousness, I tried in vain to fight it.

Between the blurry images that my vision showed me every time I opened my eyes, I slowly began to make out a figure in the abyss. Each time I closed my eyes and re-opened them, it seemed to get closer and closer with every step. It soon was a few feet away from it, and I was able to make out precisely what it was. The spectre was slender and tall, with white hands and a black outfit that was somehow lighter in shade than the abyss around us. At first, I mistook the thing for some sort of Reaper...and I almost believed it when I forced myself to look at its face; instead of a skull or something with features, the thing had what looked like some sort of marionette head with only two empty eye sockets and a tightly closed line that made its mouth.

The spectre kept its silent gaze, the wisps all around us seeming to stop their movements as if waiting to see what it would do. Soon however, the lights began to morph into little computer screens that projected noisy, flickering static. But, as if someone had changed the channel, the static turned into horrific images of my own face in many different expressions that seemed to cycle at different intervals with different sounds to occupy each image. I could do nothing but slowly choke to what felt like my inevitable death, staring in horror at everything around me. Sensing something with what little sense I had left, I realized that the specter had gotten closer. And each time it moved, the entire abyss seemed like it was glitching in and out of existence.

Closing my eyes tightly, I begin to sweat and cry as I felt like this truly was the end. But no sooner had I done that, the noises and glitches seemed to disappear to the point where I had to open my eyes again to see what had happened. Nothing was left of the previous encounter; the haunting reaper and the images disappeared as quickly as they came.

No sooner that I thought I was safe, however, my body felt itself being choked again. Unlike last time though, it felt like it was being lifted off the ground and held in place by some unknown strength. Looking down at my own hands as they scrambled to free my throat, I almost screamed in terror as the spectre from before was back again; a grim, deathly wide smile etched over its face and two tiny white pupils in the empty sockets. As I watched helplessly, my body began to morph from a tar-like shadow to my normal form as it kept staring at me, my mind making the connection that it was trying to corrupt me. The abyss around me began to glitch uncontrollably again, and its smile got bigger and bigger as if the mouth itself was going to swallow me whole.

Somehow, I was able to finally get the specter off of me and swiped its hands away before I turned to run. Only taking a few steps, I began to realize that the glitches from before had begun to disappear and got a little distracted in seeing them fading from existence the farther I got. But my safety was short lived and I screamed again as I felt myself fall to the ground of the abyss, being dragged backwards towards the reaper soon after. Every inch it pulled me in, the glitches re-appeared more frequent and severe than the last. With my last bit of strength, I rolled over to kick the hand off of my leg, and the last thing I could remember was the face of the specter leaping towards me before everything went black.

* * *

My eyes quickly flashed open and a scream escaped my throat as I woke up, my eyes looking around frantically as if expecting the specter to return. A few seconds of silence went by as it finally dawned on me that whatever it was from earlier was gone...I was safe…

At the moment, I could not stand up; my whole body felt numb to the point where I may as well have been dead. It was like...I was paralyzed, yet I could still breathe and move my eyes around. Soon though, a throbbing ache began to creep through every vein and bone in me and I knew the healing process was beginning.

Relieved that I would get back to normal sooner rather than later, I took the time to look around my surroundings to calm my nerves. Unlike the other DreamScapes that I had encountered, this one seemed….normal. There was an actual sky above my head, colored in the beauty of twilight as a rather large moon shone down to light up the world. As soon as feeling got back into my legs, I shakily got myself up and used a nearby tree for support. Now from a new angle, I noticed that I was standing in some sort of grassy park with a waterfall ending in a lake at the bottom. There were also a few bridges to get across the water from multiple places as well as a pagoda that looked like a place people would go to sit and enjoy the view of this truly beautifully quiet haven as the crickets chirped in the distance.

"I wonder who resides here…?" I heard myself whisper, my mind almost instantly beginning to forget about the horrors I had seen earlier. My thoughts were cut as I heard a shriek of surprise coming from nearby and I quickly turned my head to one corner of the lake to see what was going on.

From my vantage point, I could see a lone figure on his hands and knees looking into the water's reflection. It was too far away to see who it was, so I figured I would get closer. After some distance had passed, I ended up on one of the bridges that would take me close to its position and was close enough to finally hear and see what was going on clearly.

"Wh-What in the world is all of this?"

Hearing the voice, I felt myself do a double-take. Standing by the lake and peering into it was none other than Travis, his hands quickly pawing at the white cuirass and pauldrons he was wearing. His mouth opened to say something else, but the red scarf around his neck muffled whatever it was that he was mumbling as he bent down to look at his feet. From what I could tell, Travis was also wearing red gloves and boots that were adorned with gold striping, a blue fauld, and a black undersuit that fit his entire body besides his head underneath the armor.

"This is not what I was expecting when I woke up today," He frowned as he turned around to check what he looked like from behind. "How did these strange clothes get on me...and why does my butt looks so big in this?!"

Finally deciding it was time to actually make myself known and say hello to Travis, I started to move further down the bridge when my body locked up like it did when I first arrived. Wincing in pain, I tried to make an effort to at least say something, but even that made the pain worse.

My eyes darted to where Travis was to make sure he was okay and a gasp escaped me, ripping my throat a little. There, only a few feet down the bridge I was currently on, stood a demon of my friend that was similar to the other selves that Matt and I had fought. Sensing that I was behind it, the demon turned and observed me with a look of aggression before it turned to a mocking smirk as it realized I wasn't a threat. Taking a second to to lift a finger to its now grinning lips as if to shush me, it turned and began to walk to where my friend was still looking into the lake like an oblivious moron.

I tried to move my so I could help at least get Travis' attention, but it was all in vain. Without knowing what to do, I knew that Travis would stand no chance against his demon self as much as I did on my first night. And I was sure that the demon knew that too since it was taking its time in getting to him.

Suddenly, as if from nowhere, Sans appeared in front of the demon with his usual bored expression, eyeing the entity a little as it in turn sized up the skeleton with a small growl.

" _Hey bro...I thought you were the one who was always preaching about staying vigilant and stuff. Don't tell me that my laziness finally caught up to ya._ "

Hearing Sans' words, Travis looked over at where he was standing with a big grin on his face. " **B-Brother? Is it really you?** "

" _Just stay right where you are, Papyrus. You seem to have an uninvited house guest that I need to remove from the premises._ " The skeleton made a shrugging gesture to the demon without taking its eyes off of it, his one eye slowly flickering to its blue flame state.

" **What?! Who dares challenge great and mighty Papyrus?** " Travis...or Papyrus, as he was calling himself now...was now walking towards Sans' location while rolling up his non-existing sleeves. Hearing the voice that now came out of my friend made it clear that he had fully bonded with the monster his soul had chosen. But unlike Matt or I, his voice still somewhat sounded the same...except this new one was a little more dramatic in tone than Travis' normal speaking voice.

" _Bro...seriously, I got this. Don't worry about it._ " Sans' flame dissipated as he blinked, surprised out of focus as Travis gently pushed the skeleton behind his body as if to shield him.

" **Nonsense! As a Royal Guardsman in training, it is my duty to deal with rabble like this myself!** " Travis cracked his knuckles, narrowing his eyes at the demon. " **Besides...this is MY special hidden abode, so I should be the one to deal with our problem like any master of a house would.** " Pointing, Travis grinned wickedly. " **Prepare to be amazed at the might of I: the one and only, Papyrus! Be thankful that my brother Sans was here, or else you would be in a world of hurt!** "

" _I think its the other way around, Pap_." Sans mumbled to himself.

" **Now...before we begin, let me test your skills...** " Travis clapped his hands and the bridge expanded to become a giant checkerboard, with all four of us taking one of each side. Much as anyone would expect, everyone except Travis and Sans had no idea what was going on, The skeleton in question was currently facepalming.

" **Behold the puzzle of your demise, creepy human! I have placed traps on certain squares of this board, and all you have to do is come get me without triggering your demise. Can you survive and complete my challenge, or do you surrender?** "

The demon cocked its head, utterly confused and probably not understanding a word its prey had just said. Clearly, this whole night was something it had not prepared for and did not know how to properly act. Staring down at its feet at the multiple tiles nearby it, it slowly took a step on one of them and found that nothing happened. So it took another...and another...and another…

" _Papyrus, not to BUTT in on your great battle of wits, but did you forget to turn the traps on?_ " Sans asked, getting more and more worried as he saw the demon inch its way closer.

Travis stayed silent, though a tiny bead of sweat was rolling down his face. The demon seemed to be getting faster and faster with its movements, apparently getting confident due to none of the traps getting set off. It got a few squares away and made a move to jump, but no sooner had it leaped into the air, a large bowl of spaghetti suddenly dropped out of seemingly nowhere. The somehow perfectly sized bowl took out its vision completely as it shrieked in shock and fell over while trying to get tit off its head.

" **Nyeh, heh, heh! Taste the wrath of my patented 'Pasta Surprise Attack', vermin!** " Travis ran from his side of the board and rammed into the demon with his shoulder, knocking the other him down as it sprawled in a mess of sauce, meatballs, and angel hair pasta. No sooner had it attempted to stand up, several sharp looking bones erupted from the ground and impaled the other self as it screamed in agony.

Right when the demon seemed to be impaled, my mind blanked out and I felt myself being choked again as the face of the specter from before flashed in front of my face with glitchy, ringing noise that erupted all of my senses. But as soon as it appeared, it was gone and I gasped from the sudden ability to breathe overtaking me in a coughing fit. Feeling the presence of Sans and Travis, my fear and tension slowly started to die down as they helped me stay upright.

"What...was all of that…?!" I heard myself say with some difficulty, coughing more as I felt Travis rub and pat my back.

" **It's okay, human. Take your time to recover; my brother Sans and I will make sure that you won't get hurt.** "

" _You seem like you saw a ghost or something_ ," Sans asked with a concerned tone, gently patting my hand as if he knew what I saw but not eluding to it in front of Travis. Seeing me about to say something, he shook his head and gripped the hand a little tighter. " _We can talk about this later. For now, let's get you back to your own DreamScape._ "

I nodded, glad to have the option of going home. After all that had happened, I was ready to wake up and try to forget the whole thing. "Sounds like a plan to me..."

Travis picked me up and placed me in his arms as we started walking down the bridge that I finally realized had gone back to normal since Travis' puzzle. Blushing from embarrassment from not being able to just walk down with them, I let the feeling pass and closed my eyes to enjoy not having to walk at all in this current state my body was in.

" **I can't believe that I have a new human friend! Today has been a very fulfilling one, if I do say so myself!** " Travis grinned, looking pleased with himself that he beat a demon and made a friend in the same day.

"Travis...you are a human, you dork..." I responded almost sleepily, the effects of the morning coming sooner than I thought taking their toll.

"Wait...I am?" He responded, stopping mid stride as he looked at me. His eyes soon widened as he somehow realized what I said and his voice seemed to go back to normal.

"Oh man...this is going to need some getting used to. How do you and Sans deal with having the whole one mind and body thing?"

Sans simply shrugged and winked at Travis, " _Don't worry. The two of us can show you the ropes. Soon, you will both be BONE-ified masters!_ "

Hearing Sans make a pun, Travis and his newfound monster named Papyrus both yelled out a cry of annoyance.

* * *

My eyes opened as I felt my body being shaken, waking up fully soon after to see Travis standing over me. My first instinct was to slap him in the face for waking me up, but I quickly decided to use my words instead.

"Travis, what the actual hell?"

"First off…," Travis began, "...Sorry about waking you up. But I had to come over as soon as I woke up! We need to talk about what happened last night!"

I yawned and tried to roll over, but soon found my body was still exhausted from last night. "Do we need to do it right now…?"

"Hell yeah we do! You won't believe who my monster is!" He exclaimed giddily, trying to be quiet but having a very hard time in doing so.

Before I have a chance to say anything else, a knock was heard coming from my mirror. We both turned to see Sans standing next to another skeleton, this one very lanky and tall with the garb Travis had on last night. Seeing us looking at them, the taller one waved and grinned happily.

"Hello human! Sorry for disturbing your beauty rest, but Travis told me that Sans was staying with you, and I had to check on him before anything else wild and crazy happened. I hope you do not mind if I stay in here until Travis wants to leave?"

" _Pap, you don't need to worry about Maximus. She's cool_." Sans looked over at me and waved as well, looking much happier than he ever did since I met him.

Travis looked back over at me, his excitement overflowing and almost overbearing for me so early in the morning. "His name is Papyrus; apparently he is Sans' younger brother, if you can believe it. I guess he and Undyne are also really close friends, so I should stop by Matt's place so he can chat with them."

I nodded groggily and felt my eyes close again. This was going to be another one of those mornings...


	10. Chapter 10- Thoes school kids

Eventually, I got the energy to roll of bed due to Travis' nagging and asked him and the skeleton brothers to leave the room so I could get dressed. Taking a little longer than usual to choose an outfit, I finally settled on a dark blue top with black jeans. I also decided on a black hoodie, since that would definitely help with hiding the exhaustion I was feeling currently. The last thing I needed was for people to overly worry about me. Opening the door to leave, I waved back at Sans and Papyrus and chuckled when the taller one gave me the most energetic wave I had ever seen. Just seeing him made me figure out how he and Travis partnered up.

Walking downstairs, I noticed that Travis was lounging on the couch and grinned at him. "Say Travis? Was that you or Papyrus that picked me up last night?"

"Th-That was totally Papyrus!" His voice cracked while his face blushed a deep shade of scarlet.

Shaking my head, I laughed as my friend did his best to look normal while collecting his stuff to leave. Teasing him and seeing the reaction was strangely calming. Plus, it helped me get my mind off of the spectre that attacked me yesterday. Noticing that I had zoned out, I hoped Travis hadn't noticed as I went to head out of the house.

"Talking about dreams…," Travis said quietly after we closed the door and began to make our way to school. "Where was Matt last night?"

It took me a few seconds to realize what he was asking; the whereabouts of our third musketeer must have been boiling in his head all morning because he seemed to spit it out quickly. "No clue," I shrugged. "He and Undyne were talking about finding some monster named Alphys...perhaps they were looking for clues or something."

"He better not have been sleeping on the job or just sitting there watching anime..." Travis mumbled, frowning at the thought of Matt being lazy.

The rest of our walk was mostly silent, my exhaustion making it hard for me to respond to questions while Travis was in deep thought about something on his mind. I finally opened my mouth to say something as we reached the school, but some loud ruckus coming from the courtyard of the school caught our attention. Getting closer, I realized what exactly a large group of girls were fawning and cheering over...and my face filled with dread.

The object of their affections at the moment was none other than the most popular blue eyed brunette in the school: Derek Live. The young man was tall and slender, with the natural boyish charm that any popular male in a high school possessed. And the icing on the cake was that not only was good looking, but also had a reputation for being a very talented singer.

Truly, he was the perfect heartthrob to all girls and probably still probably would even when he hit adulthood. And I hated his guts more than anyone in the world. My reasons for hating him weren't that I personally disliked him or anything...I just didn't like the fact that he had a huge crush on me to where the whole school knew.

"Great, Mr. Dream is here..." Travis groaned and adjusted his glasses with a heavy sigh.

I tried finding a place to hide and saw Matt standing by himself off to one corner of the courtyard, surprisingly not wearing his usual hoodie for some reason today. Not thinking twice, I dragged Travis with me and tried to hide behind the two of them so no one could see me.

"Hate to say it, kiddo, but you picked a bad morning to show up early," Matt said with a smirk, watching as I pulled the hood over my face to hide like Matt usually did.

"Shut up..." I grumbled.

"Well if we had known Travis was going to be coming back from his vacation, we would have arrived later to miss the welcome home party." Travis sighed, crossing his arms as he watched with the blonde.

"Gotta admit though, he does create a lot of noise; was trying to get a nap before class started and all these girls started gawking at pretty boy."

Travis looked over at Matt when he uttered the phrase about napping, his eyes narrowed suspiciously. "Speaking of sleep, where were you last night? You missed some very important stuff."

"I did? Oh...well...sorry about that. I was busy." Matt shrugged, much to Travis' annoyance.

"You were the one that made all this seem like a big deal, Matt! Why aren't you taking all of this with more than a grain of salt's worth of seriousness? I mean, dude, this whole monster thing is happening so fast and we need to figure out a game plan! We need to strategize and plan out how we should handle the next monster that bonds with a human. What if its someone that wants to kill us? How would we be prepared for..."

While Travis had been ranting, Matt subconsciously had taken a lollipop out of his pocket and placed it in his mouth while not taking his eyes away from the conversation at hand. This caused the white haired boy to suddenly stop and stare at Matt for a split second before raising his hands up in mock anger.

"Don't ignore me, you bastard! This is important!"

"I'm listening...just had to get my mind off of something that wasn't loud and obnoxious.." He grumbled, a flash of annoyance in his eyes as he looked from Travis tot he crowd of people. His comment made Travis shut his mouth and adjust his glasses as he turned away from the blonde with a huff.

"Honestly, I don't understand you sometimes..."

The sounds of footsteps and of me grunting slightly in surprise caught both both of the boys' attention as they turned around.

"Ah, there you are, Maximus dear." Derek said in his usual musical tone of voice while hugging me around the shoulders from behind. "Did you miss me?"

How he had gotten behind us while no one had noticed was not a comforting thing to think about as I felt him squeeze me lightly in the hug. And how he knew it was me in the hoodie was beyond my train of thought at the moment. I wanted nothing more than to just disappear at the moment.

"Derek...I'm not really in the mood..." I said in a tone that was both bored and frustrated at the same time. I somehow got out from underneath his arms and turned to face him while stepping closer to Matt and Travis.

"I'm surprised you left your adoring public to come talk to us little people..." Matt had looked over in Derek's direction, his lollipop now in his index finger and thumb as he rolled it around while chewing on it. "The life of a popular squad member not all its cracked up to be, huh?"

"Always a treat to talk to you as well," Derek smirked. "But if you were paying attention, I was talking to Maximus. So please stay out of our business."

Travis went to say something but Matt nudged him, shaking his head. They both knew that I could handle Derek and that he was a problem I had to handle personally. Besides, if things did get out of hand...he would totally kick his ass. And everyone in the school knew that as well.

"Seriously Derek, not now..." I said again, adjusting my hood more over my face. I began to start walking to where my classroom was and only stopped when Derek got in my way.

"But don't you want to talk? I want to know what you have been up to while I was away," He replied with a cocky smile.

The sight of his smile finally sent me over the edge. My blood boiling, I opened my mouth to say something but all I heard was Sans' voice replacing my own.

" _If you don't stop talking, you'll find out that you are going down the route to a bad time, buddy!_ "

Fists clenched and an air of menace following me, I stomped away from the group to let the threat echo in Derek's mind.


	11. Chapter 11- Skele Talks

Since my run-in with Derek earlier in the day, my class periods seemed to crawl along at a snail's pace, making me bored into silence. The only saving grace I was given was when I was able to meet up with my friends again, but even then I was only slightly looking forward to it.

"Hey Samus...you alright?" Travis asked, concern written on his face. "You were more pissed off at Derek than usual."

"S _he's fine kiddo. Don't worry your pretty little white-haired head too much._ "

Even Matt seemed to stop sipping the soda he was slowly working on to look at me as Sans' voice came out of my mouth. "Well that's new..."

"Are you possessing her or something?" Travis began to look at me from every angle, making me try to swat him away with my hand. "Because I don't think that's a good idea right now."

" _Maximus doesn't have her funny bone working currently, so I took over for a bit._ " Sans replied, making me wink with a slight glimmer of glee as the white haired boy groaned from the pun. "And l _isten...before you lecture me about somethin', I actually took over to talk to you both about some information I found_."

"Okay, well spill the beans, skele-bro." Matt chuckled, smirking as he resumed on the drink while Travis ground his teeth at him.

" _First item of interest is actually one Maximus and I both found out today due to that incident earlier..._ " My hand raised up one finger to illustrate the point like a teacher. " _...Certain emotions or a level of exhaustion may make us monsters appear. Now, the theory needs to be tested more thoroughly before I can say anything, but you guys can figure it out on your own."_

Travis and Matt nodded, both listening intently to what Sans was saying.

 _"_ _Now the second one is the most interesting: Pap, Undyne, and I all agreed after some brainstorming, power naps, and arguing that the way a human soul chooses a monster to bond with is due to personalities and the souls' most deepest feelings. Basically, if the soul matches up with the monster of the same caliber...then boom!"_

It took the group a few seconds to fully internalize what was said. Mulling it over in my head, it seemed to make sense; no idea how it did or why, but hearing that theory helped to make sense of a few things. We had wondered how monsters seemed to partner up with humans and at first we all thought it was based on opposite gender or something like that. But after hearing what Sans and the others had discussed, it was clear that was more plausible.

"Well that all makes sense to me!" Matt finally said, crushing the can in his hand after chugging the rest of it once he was done. "

"So...wait, if it is based on what our souls are really like..." Travis lingered on his question, his eyes darting over to Matt as he watched the older teen throw away his can. He quickly looked away when Matt walked back, his brow furrowing as he thought harder. "This doesn't make any sense."

" _Let's take this one step at a time,_ " I grinned a little, resting my head on my hand in a bored way. " _Think of why you and my bro Papyrus are bonded together: you both hate puns and always try to do your best no matter what._ "

"Plus, you are like the little brother of the group," Matt grinned as he stretched, pretending not to notice how Travis ignored him on that last one.

" _Trust me, I'm about as confused as you are about all this. It's an interesting experience to say the least; acting and talking through a human is not something you learn about or put into practice everyday. Plus I'm concerned about if this is going to be a full-time gig when Maximus gets out of it more often. Don't know how long I can pretend to be her without someone catching on, ya know?"_

"Everything will be fine!" Travis suddenly seemed rejuvenated back to his normal self as he sat down next to me, placing an arm around my shoulder and poking my nose. "We can show you the ropes on how to act like a true human. It will be easy as making a bowl of spaghetti soup!"

My face scrunched up a little from the poke, " _You and Papyrus combining forces, eh? This ought to be a hoot_."

Before any of us could respond, a shadow seemed to loom over our table. The appearance of the it alone caused Travis' whole body to clench up and almost have a heart attack, but seeing who the shadow belonged to made him almost shriek from surprise. The Asian man was a few inches taller than six feet, with short stubby black hair that matched the trimmed goatee he sported. A dark suit fitted with a red tie matched the black pants, dark brown shoes, and dark red belt he was wearing.

Even Matt was surprised by how quietly the principle had approached, lifting a hand to give the newcomer a small wave. "Hey there, Mister Sengi. What brings you over to our humble abode?"

"I heard about what happened this morning," His voice was stern yet had a tinge of concern to it. "Before I decided to pass judgment on anyone, I wanted to hear your side of the problem."

"Well I certainly had no problem with Derek...although he was trying to get a little too close to Maximus after she asked him politely to leave her alone." Matt adjusted his glasses, his eyes closed.

Mr. Sengi nodded and looked at me. "Is there something you want to add?"

" _I just had an offbeat day yesterday, sir. Exhaustion is a real pain, ya know?_ " Sans replied for me with a shrug, making both of my friends look over at me with a slight panic.

"Indeed it is..." Mr. Sengi raised an eyebrow. "Might I ask why you are speaking to me like that? I hope your friend isn't rubbing off on you."

The obvious jab at Matt made the blonde glare at the principle slightly, but he kept his mouth shut. Meanwhile, Sans was freaking out a little at how he had heard the obvious difference in my voice and it showed on my face for a second before he made me pretend to stretch and go back to normal.

" _Oh sorry about that. I've been...practicing a new voice for some voice over work on a project some friends of mine are doing online! You know, like one of those...erm...what do you call them..._ "

"Audio books? Radio dramas?" Travis quickly threw in some examples.

I nodded and snapped my fingers in his direction, "T _hank you. Yeah, one of those. You know what they say about getting into your role perfectly: have to practice all day!_ "

The principle continued to eye me as Sans tried his best to make me look normal, sweat rolling down my cheek as his gaze almost pierced my very soul while his arms were crossed.

" _L-Look, Mr. Sengi, I really don't mind Derek all that much. The guy is as harmless as a housefly on most days; annoying as hell, but harmless. I just don't appreciate it when he clings on me like I'm some sort of trophy or whatever. Could you just tell him to lay off for a bit?_ "

Matt and Travis both seemed to blink at what Sans had said. It wasn't very clear if it was myself talking or if the skeleton was still taking over. However, what I seemed to say at the end made Mr. Sengi nod and sigh heavily.

"I figured as much...Knowing you like I do, I'm sure you did not mean to threaten him the way you did. Just be sure to get more sleep from now on, agreed?"

I nod and notice that he is about to say something when the bell suddenly rings out across the campus. Taking a second to think for a moment, he finally bows a bit and begins heading back the way he came. "Have a good afternoon, you three. See you tomorrow."

"Thank you for earlier, Sans. Knowing me, I would have snapped at someone else if you hadn't stepped in." I sighed with relief as I finally collapsed on my bed, my voice returning to normal.

Sans shrugged from his place in the mirror. " _No problem kiddo. Just make sure this doesn't become a regular thing, alright?"_

I nodded, yawning as I stretched. "I'll try...but no promises."

The skeleton huffed a chuckle and somehow sat down in the mirror, his arms stretched behind him while his feet were crossed in a relaxing way. It was always crazy how the monsters were able to do stuff like that in a mirror; the things look so cramped and small, yet Papyrus said that it gets rather cozy when you get used to it. He yawned soon after and his eye sockets closed as he began to take a nap; knowing him, Sans was probably bored and as exhausted as I was from taking over for me.

Watching him nap, I soon began to feel sleepy as well and tried my best to stay awake. Forcing myself to roll to the side of the bed, I grabbed my backpack and reminded myself to thank the idea of placing it by my bed when I came home as I pulled out my homework. Placing the papers and book required for one of the assignments, I started writing out some stuff when I felt myself glance over at the peaceful resident of my mirror. He seemed so content and calm...but deep down I knew he was as worried as the others were about this whole situation the monsters were all involved in. If roles were reversed and I was the one stuck in a mirror...

Suddenly, a knot began to form in my stomach. It never occurred to me before that the skeleton, as well as the other monsters, were just like my friends and I; they had struggles and personalities and everything about them seemed human...if that was even the correct term I was thinking of. The whole time we had become friends, none of us had asked each other about what life, the universe, or anything.

Gender assumptions aside, the monster living in my mirror was probably the closest link to a version of myself as a monster could get.

 _"_ _Seven kilograms."_

Sans' voice snapped me out of my thoughts and I realized I had been staring at him for a while. Blushing from embarrassment, I scratched the back of my head. "Wh-What about it?"

Opening one eye socket about halfway, he looked over at me, " _Took a lot of effort to brew that experiment, but I'm pretty sure I'm correct on the science of the problem._ "

Realizing he was talking about my homework, I chuckled and wrote it down before tossing the work off my bed. "I'm going to take a nap..all this effort in staying awake is making my brain hurt and I can't focus."

" _That's the spirit_." Sans seemed to grin as he closed his eye socket fully, softly snoring back to sleep almost immediately.


	12. Chapter 12- Flames Erupt

Before I drifted off to sleep, I had made a small prayer that hopefully the spectre that had tried to attack me the night when Travis and Papyrus bonded wouldn't materialize once again. Even with Sans backing me up, the thing might have been too powerful for us to fight off. Feeling myself enter the DreamScape and taking a second to wait cautiously before waking up, I breathed a sigh of relief when all seemed quiet and normal; the environment around me was the usual calming purple and my skeleton buddy was sleeping a few feet away from me, laying on his back with his arms behind his head to prop himself up.

Since all seemed in order and I actually had the time to think about things and muddle over them in my head, I decided that I wanted to change the scenery around my DreamScape. Snapping my fingers and guiding my index finger, I began to erase the purple atmosphere and replaced it with a calming field of grasswith a nice night sky.

" _Huh...this place isn't that bad, Samus._ " Sans' voice surprised me a little as I looked over and noticed that he had woken up.

"Eh, crowded spaces aren't my thing." I gave him a little insight on the topic as I shrugged.

Sans chuckled and winked, " _Well I ain't complaining. It's perfect for a lazybones like myself to catch a few winks of rest after a long day's work._ "

A chuckle escaped me as I smiled. A thought crossed my mind and I was about to ask Sans about it when I noticed something that caught my eye. Staring at it for a second, I stand up quickly and begin walking off in that direction. I didn't even hear Sans as I focused on getting closer to what I was following.

" _Maximus? Where are you..."_ Sans started to ask as he eventually caught up to me, but his voice trailed off as he saw what I was trailing. " _I-Is that your mom_?"

I replied with a quick nod.

" _Look, I understand that this is your mother and all, but something about this doesn't feel right. We should think about this before rushing into unknown situations._ "

Sans' words fell on deaf ears as I teleported away from him to catch up to my mom quicker; I was only concerned about finding out whether or not what I thought I saw was what it really was. It was odd though...each step I took made my DreamScape shift into something more akin to the inside of a stone ruin, complete with pillars, overgrown plant life, and some dimly lit torches here and there. Getting only a few feet away from her now, I stopped only when she did and waited patiently for my mother to say something. But after a few seconds of silence, I softly called to her and extended my hand to tap her on the shoulder.

No sooner had my hand touched her, my mother spoke. "Maximus...what are you doing out of bed at this hour?"

A sigh of relief escaped me as I opened my mouth to speak, however it turned to a gasp of fright as my mom's head began to rotate like an owl so her face was now looking towards me with a sadistic Cheshire grin and glowing red eyes that I knew all too well.

"It's past your bedtime..."

My whole body turned to jelly; there was nothing I could do to react fast enough if the demon of my mother attacked. And judging how it was giggling and raising a hand towards my throat, my chances of holding out until Sans arrived to save me once again where growing slim.

Just before the hand fully wrapped around my throat, a fireball flew in from behind and smacked the demon square in the back. Yelping in pain, the copycat of my mother stumbled forward into me, forcing me to push it away and stumble backwards a bit so I wouldn't fall. I noticed at that moment that the demon was glitching; its body was morphing in and out of existence as if it was clinging to life.

But then I saw its face, and realized that this was no ordinary night like the others. The face of the demon was gone, replaced by the ghastly mask of the spectre I had encountered in nights past. And just like that night, my body began to shut down and my head became woozy, making me fight to stay conscious.

Seeing me in a state where I was vulnerable, the demon made a leap towards me, its hands outstretched as it pounced in my direction in a last ditch effort. Just as it got halfway towards me however, another fireball pelted the demon in the back of the head, forcing it to fall in trajectory to the ground due to the force of the impact.

"Leave Maximus alone!" A sweet yet demanding voice suddenly echoed in the DreamScape. In the shadows down a corridor of the ruin, I saw a figure in flowing robes floating in the air, its hands glowing with an intense magical energy. Seeing the demon fall down caused my mom to fly over towards my location and landin front of me, her arms at her sides as the bright energy crackled like a living flame around her hands as she faced the demon with her back towards me. Looking at her from closer up, I noticed that she was wearing a long purple dress with a symbol on the front that I didn't recognize and white trim going down certain areas that matched the same color as the long flowing sleeves.

"Are you alright, my child?" My mother asked in a tone different than her usual one, but her usual tone of sweetness was in there.

" _She'll be alright. Samus just needs a bit of time to recover,_ " Sans popped up next to me as he helped me to my feet, concern in his voice. " _You ARE alright, right?_ "

"Y-Yeah...I think so," I nod, getting next to my mom and taking a defensive position as Sans takes the other side, our eyes glowing blue.

"You and your friend are going to explain what is going on to me after this, my child." My mom narrowed her eyes as the demon struggled to get back up. "I expect you both to not leave a single detail out."

I felt myself sweating slightly; dealing with my mom being here and bonding to a monster while also dealing with her demonic copy was all too much to deal with at once.

" _We will. But right now we got a demon to fry,_ " Sans gives a light smirk and snaps his fingers, bones glowing the same blue as our eyes hovering around us. Looking over at my mom, he shrugged softly, " _And don't worry about your other question, I'll answer that as well_."

My mom looked at Sans for a second but nodded, turning to the demon again as she began to float above the ground again, a look of determination filling her soul as she held her hands in front of her and prepared a larger fireball than the others.

And it was at that moment that I finally succumbed to exhaustion and passed out.

I woke up slowly the next morning with a feeling of grogginess as I sat up. As I did so however, the groggy feeling soon began to slowly fade and a feeling of refreshment and restoration overtook me. It was like I had been given a full restore or some other helpful item or curing spell in a videogame…

Focusing on the mirror, I notice Sans still asleep in the same position he was in when I was in my DreamScape. Fully getting out of bed now, I went over to the mirror and lightly tapped on it.

The noise made Sans yawn loudly and open one eye socket. " _...Five more minutes..._ " He mumbled before falling back asleep.

Huffing in reply, I decided to let him sleep and go get dressed before heading down for breakfast. Something was tugging at the back of my mind the whole time like I was forgetting something very important; as is if a very crucial detail had slipped my mind regarding last night. It took until I was going down the stairs that it dawned on me.

"Wait...something isn't right."

I realize that I had said that out loud to myself and blushed. However it was odd: my mom usually made breakfast around this time and the usual sounds or smells that accompanied it were not coming from the kitchen. The television or radio wasn't on either, which would have been the second thing I would have heard.

Suddenly I realized the one crucial detail I had forgotten: my mother was in the DreamScape with me and Sans.

Almost jumping my way back up the stairs, I ran to my mom's room and fling open the door. "Mom?! Are you here?"

My mother stared at me with surprise and annoyance on her face, her hands going to her hips after a second of silence from her. "Maximus...what is the meaning of barging into my room without knocking?"

My eyes widened as I it dawned on me that she was alright, followed by a bright blush of embarrassment. "I….I thought you were..."

"Is everything alright?" Another voice called out, making me stiffen as I looked in the direction of my mother's mirror.

"Yes, sorry about that. It's my daughter, Maximus. Sorry for the interruption," My mom ignored me for now and looked over at the mirror to talk to whoever was inside of it.

"Oh! You have a child?" The voice answered cheerfully as my mom nodded and motioned for me to come over with her. As I got closer, I beheld a goat woman looking back at us through the mirror dressed in the same garb my mother had on last night. Seeing me next to my mom made the goat smile and she curtsied a little. "Greetings, Maximus. My name is Toriel and am greatly honored to make your acquaintance! Your mother has been trying to inform me about the current situation, but I think we both need a better insight."

" _Well luckily, Samus and I can help you with that!_ " Sans answered before I could say anything, walking into my mother's mirror next to the goat woman, making her turn around with a look of surprise.

As the two began to talk, it was clear that they knew each other, so I relaxed a little and looked to my mom. However that turned out to be a bad idea, as she was now looking at me with a frown.

"Alright, my child. You remember what I told you last night: you and Sans over there have some serious explaining to do about all this."


	13. Chapter 13- The short side of things

The air in the bedroom was tense; the goat woman and my mother shared a very stern look in my direction like they were ready to scold me at any second. And who could blame them? This whole situation was sort of thrust upon both of them, just like it had been for my friends and I. I tried thinking of a good way to start all of this off in a way where the information could be understandable yet also told in a short amount of time, but nothing seemed to pop up.

Sensing that now would be a good time to tag in an assist, Sans clears his throat to get the girls' attention and shifted himself to a more comfortable standing position. " _First off, let me make it very clear that neither Maximus or I have any idea as to what is going on or why its happening to certain people, if not everybody..._ " He paused for a second to make sure that Toriel and my mother were listening before he continued. " _We do, however, know how all this started_."

"Well, that is a good start." My mother nodded, crossing her arms on her lap as she waited to hear the rest of what we both had to say.

Sans looked at me as if to give me a motion to continue, making me shift a little in my spot on the bed. Seeing my worry, Toriel looked over at me. "Take your time, Maximus. Your mother and I know that this is not easy to describe."

With a deep breath and some confidence renewed thanks to Toriel's words, I begin to recount all of what transpired up to this point with some help from my skeleton buddy: meeting Sans on that first night, my friends finding out they also had monster companions, the dreams we had to face, and the demonic forms of ourselves that tried to take over. Once everything was said and out for discussion, my mother and Toriel shared a gaze of both understanding yet also confusion.

"...So what you are saying is..." My mother began after seeming to mull over what she heard, "...When you are in the Dream Realm, you and Sans are..."

" _One and the same, yeah technically. Let's go with that_." Sans shrugged.

"That seems a little odd that each human has a monster that is a different gender then they are, though," Toriel was thinking hard, one of her hands under her chin.

"Yeah we thought that was odd at first too, but we deduced that maybe its more about personality or the souls' most deepest feelings and true nature. But you never know, ya know?" I shrugged, not really sure how to answer that part of our dilemma.

"And as far as you both know, there are no other humans that are sharing your predicament?" Toriel asked in a more serious tone this time.

Sans chuckled and shook his head. " _Nope, sorry lady..._ "

My mother had been surprisingly silent the whole time Sans and I had talked, only chiming in a few times to get a better understanding of certain things. But once a silence had gone over everyone in the room, she exhaled a heavy sigh and looked over at me. "Maximus, is there anything else you want to add?"

I thought for a second and noticed that Sans was going to speak, but I held my hand up to tell him I could handle it. "A few days ago, I suffered an emotional downpour from lack of a good nights sleep and all the stress. And when that happened...well..."

Sans decided to butt in, holding his index finger up like a teacher illustrating a point. " _Certain emotions or a level of exhaustion may make the monster companion appear in real time. Now the theory of course needs to be tested more thoroughly before any of us can make a final verdict on the matter, but I'm, sure we can all try to figure it out on our own."_

With that, my mother stood up and left the room, looking a little distraught.

Toriel watched as she left and quickly looked at me with a caring gaze, "Do not fear, my child. Your mother is just a little overwhelmed about all of this. I cannot blame her; if it was my child that was in danger..."

Her voice trailed off and a frown slowly etched onto her face, as if she was trying to hold back some sort of emotion. As she turned away from us to compose herself, Sans and I exchanged a look of worry before she righted herself. "We must all work together to make sure that this does not get worse. For all we know, there are other humans who are dealing with this and have no one to turn to, or worse, they are no longer with us. Finding others and teaching them how to handle this is critical!"


	14. Update!

Hey everyone it's Dragon here! i just want to let you all know why chapter 14 hasn't come out yet. That as a simple reason...I have writers block and cant seem to do anything with this chapter i have quite a few different set-ups for this chapter but cant seem to get very far so i have talked it over with my editor of the story (SuperSonic22) and we have decided to give him full control over the chapter. otherwise it wont ever get done. So be a little more patient guys Maximus, Matt, and Travis are not out of the picture yet!


	15. Chapter 14-Wingdings

Chapter 14: Windings

Matt and Travis came over to my place again later that same evening. However this visit was a bit more difficult to handle since Mom's new monster companion was helping her make sure we didn't slack off too much. It took a while to convince Toriel that she didn't need to watch our progress like a hawk, but soon the three of us were dragging ourselves upstairs as usual. With any luck, we thought wishfully, it would not be so tedious or boring. Maybe it may get done sooner rather than later.

The minute we settled in for the long haul, Matt piped up from his place on the floor about turning something on for background noise, which led to me grabbing the remote and channel surfing until we found a random cartoon that wasn't too distracting. For the first few minutes there was utter silence in the room besides the soft noises coming from the television. But when Travis loudly rummaged around his bag and pulled out the English textbook and a copy of "The Great Wall", a louder sigh of annoyance escaped him as he rolled his eyes.

"Alright, we know you are there. You aren't gonna scare us that easily, Undyne."

Soon enough, our three monster companions shifted back into place in my mirror.

"Rats!" Papyrus started, shaking his fist in the air in comical agitation. "I thought the humans wouldn't be so quick to discover our plot!"

" **Yeah, Pap and I thought we would totally get you punks this time** ," Undyne frowned.

" _Eh…personally I think you could'a done a better job_ ," Sans pointed out with a slight chuckle.

"Hey! You were in on this too, Sans!" Papyrus turned to his older brother and fumed.

" **Yeah, bonehead! And it would have worked too if you actually helped**!" Undyne joined in, the two taller monsters glowering at the shorter one.

" _Yeah…but that requires work. Besides, I haven't received that ketchup you both promised for helping last time_." Sans closed his eyes and shrugged, making a movement that looked like he was sitting down. " _So until then, I'm just gonna sit here and take a nice little power nap to rethink my strategy_."

" _ **STRATEGY FOR WHAT**_ _ **?!**_ " Papyrus and Undyne both screamed.

The sound of footsteps coming to the door caught everyone's attention and soon after that my door opened. My mother popped her head in from the other side, looking around as Toriel also appeared in the mirror with the other monsters.

"Everything alright, children?" Toriel asked with a worried glance.

"We heard screaming," my mother added.

" _Everything is fine, Tori. Thanks for the checkup though_." Sans said from his spot, one eye open.

"Sorry Mom, we will try to be quiet." I nodded, Travis and Matt following suit.

"Alright. Well, Toriel and I are making some dinner so please come down when you are ready." My mom smiled and closed the door as Toriel also left the room with her.

"Wait a second, do you guys even eat?" Travis asked the monsters.

Matt whacked Travis upside the head a little, "Focus on the homework and stop procrastinating. Sooner we get this done the sooner we can eat and relax."

Undyne snickered a little but tried to hide it by coughing.

"Speaking of plots, you three learn anything new about our predicament?" Matt asked as he started to continue with his work, dodging an attempt at a punch to the shoulder by Travis.

" **Nothing worth mentioning** …" Undyne shrugged. "Just the same old problems with the exact same questions."

"This whole thing is starting to turn into a real puzzle, isn't it?" Travis asked.

"But not the fun kind," Papyrus corrected.

" _A puzzle-ing situation that is surely a buzzkill_." Sans nodded in agreement.

Papyrus gritted his teeth and turned to his brother, a finger raised in the air as if to start ranting again. However, to everyone's surprise, the skeleton sighed and regained composure.

"That one was very clever, Sans."

" _Thanks, bro_." Sans grinned wider than usual, beaming.

The discussion was soon dropped as there were no new things to discuss. This was not a bad thing though; my friends and I were more than happy to talk about other things and enjoy each other's company. Anything to get our minds off both the homework we had and the tinge of dread lying underneath our predicament.

* * *

Just like the first night I encountered Sans in the DreamScape, everything was peaceful and quiet. The two of us were trying to figure out more of the bells and whistles that our fusion gave us, however Sans was being a lazy-bones as usual. So it was up to me to practice a few things on my own.

"You know, I think I am actually getting used to this whole fusion thing." I said with a confident smile, a bone I materialized earlier balancing on my hand.

" _Still feels weird being someone's reflection, but I guess I can't complain much. At least I get to see the surface and enjoy it_." Sans yawned from his spot nearby.

I begin to say something about his statement, but then I remember that he had mentioned how monsters used to live underground and I shake my head. As I do so, my focus on balancing the bone wavers and it makes the object look a bit more unbalanced than before. And soon even that small amount leaves me as something then crossed my mind, making me shiver hard enough for the bone to topple to the ground.

The noise had attracted Sans' attention and he turned on his side to face me, " _Something wrong_?"

I sit down silently and poke at the bone, a wave of uneasiness going over me as I remember that horrid Spectre I had ran into a few nights ago. I wanted to tell Sans so badly…but how could I even begin to even describe what I didn't even understand?

After a second, I realize that Sans had sat next to me with a bony arm around my shoulders, trying to comfort me. I felt relaxed enough at this point to talk to him, his support meaning the world to me at this point.

"What if that specter comes back and brings another shadow? Every time I see one I freeze up. And if I do that, I can't protect anyone…" I finally say in a quiet tone, as if I didn't want anyone else to know what we were discussing.

Sans shrugged, " _Our friends are powerful in their own right, they can take care of themselves. As for those shadow demons, don't worry about those; next time we do see one won't be any time you will be alone_."

A smile went across my cheeks and I nodded.

" _What does this specter look like_?" Sans continued curiously, a small hint of seriousness to it as if he was trying to hide it.

Before I could answer, my ears picked up something and I cocked my head to listen.

" _Samus?_ " Sans looked worried as he blinked.

"You hear that…?" I looked over in a direction, listening more intently as I then stood up. The noise sounded like a steady thumping noise, not too rhythmic like a heart, but it still had a beat to it. Almost like…

"Music..?"

" _Samus, I don't hear anything. You sure you are okay? Maybe we should just…_ " Sans started but then he stopped as I started walking off in the direction I heard the music coming from. With a heavy sigh, the skeleton stood up and followed.

In a way, I was glad the music cut off our conversation; on the one hand, I did want to talk to Sans about the issue that was plaguing me lately. But I also didn't want to think about the specter at all. Anything to take my mind off it was a wonderful distraction.

As we walked, the clear purple grass of my DreamScape turned into something that resembled a dance floor in a club. Unknowingly, it seems that we had crossed over into someone else's DreamScape. And the voice that made me suddenly realize who it belonged to made me wish we never did.

"OOOOOH YES!" The voice rang out from what felt like all around us and a second after something that felt like a metallic hand grabbed my shoulder. As if on instinct, my eye turned blue and my body twisted into a small spin kick as my leg lashed out. When my eyes fell on who it was, my eyes widened.

It was Derek, except he looked more like some sort of fashion robot. His hair had become jet black instead of the usual dirty blonde color it usually was, and his chest had become hot rod pink with a stomach that looked like a glass casing with some sort of glowing heart inside of it. His legs had also become longer, with pink heels that made me snicker a bit when I noticed them.

"Oh great, my weekend is ruined." I mutter out lightly. Looking over at Sans, it looked like he was more surprised by what I did then who we had found.

"What do you mean?" I'm here now. It's all that counts." Derek mused, his voice taking on a slight robotic pitch that matched his look as he walked forward while brushing himself off.

He had only taken a few steps when Sans got between us, his eye sockets narrowed. _"_ _Sorry bud, but it's clear Samus DOESN'T like you. She has personal space issues as well, so I'm gonna be keeping an eye on you._ _"_

"Listen here," Derek growled, wagging a finger at Sans. "I don't know who you are, but you cannot tell me what what to do, you creepy monster!"

" _Well I hate to be the one to burst your bubble but you are a creepy monster as well, dude_ _!"_

And just like that, instant realization hit Derek; his voice returned to normal and his eyes shrunk in terror. I finally had enough of the current situation and turned to leave, throwing my hands up in the air. As soon as I had turned though, I realized what Derek was freaked out about. It wasn't the fight…it was IT again; the goopy skeleton with the pure black cloak. On cue, my body freezes up and I cannot will myself to look away as my body shook to the point where I thought I was going to faint.

" " I tried to call out to Sans, but my voice sounded like garbled static. Almost as if the spectre had fused with me. But that was impossible…right?

The specter smiled evily and repeated what I had said in its own voice, its right eye turning blue.

* * *

Author's Note: the Long awaited chapter 14 is here! YES! sleeptale isn't dead as some of you may of thought, i just had major writers block during this chapter but now hold on to your souls chapter 15 is coming soon! its simply called "The Mountain King" and sorry for the shortness, the next chapter will be EXTRA LONG!


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